THE VOICE OF THE DESERT 



202 



of the most prodigious imbalance in the natm*al order 

 which has ever existed. 



From a purely homocentric point of viev^ this may seem 

 entirely proper. To most people it undoubtedly does. Is 

 it not our proudest boast that v^e have learned how^ to 

 'control nature"? Does not our dream of the future in- 

 clude a final emancipation from any dependence upon a 

 natural balance and the substitution for it of some bal- 

 ance established by oinrselves and in oin: exclusive inter- 

 est? Is not that, in fact, v^hat most people have in mind 

 when they think of the final triumph of humanity? 



But what every "practical" ecologist is trying to do is 

 maintain the balance of nature without facing the fact 

 that man himself is part of it, that you cannot hope to 

 keep the balance unless you admit that to some extent the 

 immediate interest of the human species may sometimes 

 have to be disregarded. No other single fact is so impor- 

 tant as man himseH in creating the often disastrous imbal- 

 ances which continually develop. It is not possible to re- 

 establish them for long without undertaking to control the 

 organism which has most obviously entered upon a run- 

 away phase. Must we not recognize the fact that any real 

 "management of resources" is impossible imless we are 

 willing to sacrifice to some extent the immediate interests 

 not only of certain individual men but also those of the 

 human species itself? Most of us have reached the point 

 where we recognize that the immediate interests of the 

 lumberman or the rancher must sometimes be sacrificed 

 to "the general good." Ultimately we may have to recog- 

 nize that there is also a conflict between what is called 

 the general good and a good still more general — the good, 

 that is to say, of the whole biological community. 



