A GLOBAL VIEW 3 



such a mental and emotional climate. The raw truth is that the land- 

 scape under civilized occupancy has seldom been allowed or encour- 

 aged to function normally. 



The channels which thoughts follow are shaped and directed very 

 largely by the personal world we live in. The restricted world most 

 of us live in remains abnormal, and our thinking strongly reflects this 

 fact. 



Cities are abnormal in many ways. The ugliness of most houses 

 and business buildings is accepted as normal by 90 per cent or more 

 of city dwellers. The constricted, crowded streets, the lack of parks 

 and playgrounds, the absence of natural scenery, the ignorance of 

 basic production problems and sources of food and clothing, the arti- 

 ficial entertainment, the synthetic stimuli to work and play, the loose 

 standards of conduct all these are generally abnormal in cities, yet 

 are accepted as normal to city life. 



Most American farms, forests, and rangelands are abnormal. The 

 erosion of topsoil, the straight furrow on curving lands, the easy sub- 

 stitution of chemical fertilizers for organic manuring, the exhaustion 

 of humus, the thin, scanty pasture and range, the annihilation cutting 

 of forest and woodlot, the putrid, muddy streams, the scarcity of polli- 

 nating insects, the meager populations of birds and other wildlife 

 these things are abnormal, yet are accepted by a great majority of 

 land owners and land users as normal. 



Normal thinking, with a longtime background of abnormal envi- 

 ronment, is extremely difficult. It requires search for scientific knowl- 

 edge. It requires mental labor. It requires social courage. It is not 

 popular. Its conclusions will be resented by many. The forces dis- 

 couraging normal thinking are great and few will overcome them. 



The overview which follows is an attempt to relate man to the 

 landscape, and to point out that the original landscape, and man him- 

 self originally, were products of normal forces within the universe. It 

 is a condensed attempt (as is this entire book) to cut through the 

 smoke screens of abnormality and see some of the real modern prob- 

 lems which confront us. That we approach the task from the view- 

 point of a particular science is not essential ; it is merely a convenient 

 entry into the mazes of the total landscape. 



The Organization Behind Life. It is instructive to stop and con- 

 sider sketchily, what it takes to place a modern mechanical contriv- 

 ance, say an automobile, at our disposal. We are at least dimly aware 

 of the giant factory with its thousands of workers which fabricate 

 many of the parts and put them together. We may know that many 

 of the parts are made in still other factories. The different metals used 

 are dug out of the earth all over the world. These mining operations 

 are complex procedures involving men and materials. Refining and 

 processing them require mills, and sources of power. Various modes 

 of transportation are involved in moving these earth products to the 

 factories trucks, railroads, steamships. Many automobile parts are 

 grown on soils rubber, wool and cotton, soybean plastics and again 



