“—bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations.”
Theodore Roosevelt’s words from A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open are often foundational in my conservation articles. The entire passage follows:
“Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying that ‘the game belongs to the people.’ So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction.
Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.”
Theodore Roosevelt, A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open (1916)
You can read my articles in this category by following this link, https://middlerivergroup.com/category/conservation/roosevelt-mandate-articles/