Rolston talks about humans valuing their environment. He compares the way humans use their environment versus animals such as squirrels. He gives examples such as life-support value, economic value, recreation value, scientific value, genetic-diversity value, historical value, cultural-symbolization value, and many others. Rolston boldly implies statements like “values carried by nature will let us make an inventory of how nature is valuable to humans.” I assume he is asking whether or not humans actually value the land, on which we live and survive.
In recent year’s humans have realized how important our ecosystem is to our existent. With the human population steadily increasing and technology soaring we are modifying our life support system. There must be an end to this before we disrupt this system. Some natural items may be able to be replaced but others may not be. It is important to realize before it becomes too late.
Humans do not adapt to nature but rebuild it to satisfy their needs. In my opinion I think it is selfish of us. If there is a cliff that is not climbable that does not mean to tear it down and destroy the land to build an indoor climbing center. We require many natural things at the same time. All of this land that we destroy already has its value. We should not have to tear it down or destroy to find a different value for it or in that case revalue it. It is also selfish to think, even more value is being added when some one labors over the land.
Humans enjoy untouched nature even though those certain parts of nature are not needed to improve our lives. We can see this in many out door activities. Humans tend to like the out doors because it offers more to them than the indoors. For some it adds more to their lives than anything else. The natural outdoors provides life shaping experiences and revelations. Therefore, nature is often much more enjoyable and meaningful when it is untouched.
Genetic diversity value shows that humans eat few plants and ten species provide 80% of the worlds calories. At the same time it is very important for us to preserve many of the worlds species.
In conclusion, he is trying to prove the point that nature is highly valuable whether it is labored over or not. We need nature and its resources but it is delicate and it is possible we may heavily damage it if we continue to labor over it. We need to value the diversity and unity that nature provides to us as well. Nature has its highest value for what it is, not for what it is used for nor for how much labor humans have put in to it.