but not to other vegetation, for which 
there was no market. Habitats, aquatic 
or otherwise, were destroyed with im- 
punity. Nobody had given any thought 
whatsoever to environmental contami- 
nation. The question of humaneness 
in hunting, fishing, and trapping had 
not been considered. All these issues 
would crop up in the twentieth cen- 
tury. 
The situation has always been the 
same. Caught up in immediate prob- 
lems, societies could rarely afford the 
luxury of insight into future dilemmas 
and responded to crises in much the 
same manner as modern legislators. 
They reacted to obvious declines in 
animal populations by reducing the 
mortality of a target species, but not 
by providing places in the environment 
for the increased population to live 
and thrive. Since nobody had ever 
complained about plant rarity or floral 
extinction, this subject was ignored. 
In the latter half of the twentieth 
century, most developed countries 
have accomplished a degree of con- 
servation legislation appropriate to 
their degree of affluence. In the West- 
ern world, we have reached a level 
of human comfort hitherto unavailable 
to masses of people, and as a result, 
our lawmakers have been able to de- 
vote their time to such subjects as 
conservation, which might, at other 
times and in other places, have been 
left unaddressed. 
Who knows the extent to which the 
conservation movement will influence 
future Western society? We have al- 
ready seen that the presence of a tiny 
fish in an American river can halt 
the construction of a multimillion dol- 
lar power facility. In England, there 
is pressure for the enactment of a law 
requiring that the killing of shrimp 
and lobsters be made more humane. 
Environmental impact statements are 
becoming commonplace require- 
ments. 
Examination of the laws of the var- 
ious civilizations that have existed to 
date reveals that conservation enthu- 
siasm emerges early in the evolution 
of a particular society. But its refined 
incorporation into the actual behavior 
of citizens, in terms of positive effect, 
is restricted to the advanced stages 
of the society, since only then can 
it afford the luxury of concern. 
Robert M. Alison, senior biologist for 
seven years with the Ontario Ministry 
of Natural Resources, is at present 
a free-lance writer. 
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