Our Ethics about Nature

One of the last experiences we had this week was to recall and discuss all the experiences we had and what we felt about them.  After listing our several walks, drawings, observations, conversations, and dining experiences, besides swimming nearly every day and some staying home sick, we discussed what was natural and what was not.  Several campers noted that going to the pool was somewhat natural; that it was not non-natural.  Some campers pointed out that humans are animals too, and live on the planet too.  We also discussed what we didn't like about the week: sweating, mosquitos, flies, scratchy grass, birds pooping in our shoes, etc.  Then we made a list of our value statements toward nature, based upon an activity from the Walden Woods Project.  Here's what the campers all believe:

People are responsible for taking care of the earth.
People need to share the earth's resources with all life on the planet.
People are no more important than insects, plants, bacteria, and all the other forms of life on earth.
It is possible for people to live in harmony with nature and without hurting the environment.
Conservation is important because nature has value in itself despite how it might be useful to people.
People are part of a complex ecosystem.
Everyone is equally responsible for reducing his/her impact on the planet.
Future generations have a right to a clean, healthy environment.

The campers did not believe the following:
Humans are separate from the environment.
It is more important to meet people's basic needs than to protect the environment.
The earth's resources are there for people to use for whatever purpose they want.

We hope the campers have started their personal journey of discovering their changing ethics to nature, and that they appreciate how hard it is to make happen what they would like to have happen.  We talked about food packaging, for example, and how that can have a negative impact on their goals.  We talked about political decisions: decisions that involve heterogenous populations and limited resources, and how some people do not get what they want, and sometimes the environment loses.  We hope the campers don't have a simplistic attitude toward nature and conservancy, but begin to open themselves up to the complexity of sustaining the world they live in.