问题描述：
英语翻译
Substitutes for a Land Ethic
When the Logic of history hungers for bread and we hand
out a stone,we are at pains to explain how much the stone resembles bread.I
now describe some of the stones which serve in place of a land
ethic.
One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly
on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no
economic value.Wildflowers and songbirds are examples.Of the
22,000 higher plants and animals native to Wisconsin,it is doubtful whether
more than 5 per cent can be sold,fed,eaten,or otherwise put to economic use.
Yet these creatures are members of the biotic community,and if (as I
believe) its stability depends on its integrity they are entitled to
continuance.
When one of these non-economic categories is threatened
and if we happen to love it,we invent excuses to give it economic importance.
At the beginning of the century songbirds were supposed to be
disappearing.Bird experts jumped to the rescue with some distinctly shaky evidence to the effect
that insects would eat us up if birds failed to control them.The evidence had to be economic in order to be valid.
It is painful to read these roundabouts
today.We have no land ethic yet,but we have at least drawn nearer
the point of admitting that birds should continue as a matter of biotic right,
regardless of the presence or absence of economic advantage to us.
Some
species of trees have been "read out of the party" by
economics-minded foresters because they grow
too slowly,or have too low a sale value to pay as timber crops.In Europe,where forestry is ecologically more
advanced,the non-commercial tree species are recognized as members of the native forest community,to be preserved as
such,within reason.Moreover some
(like beech) have been found to have a valuable function in building up soil fertility.The interdependence of the
forest and its constituent tree species,ground Flora,and fauna is taken forgranted.
Substitutes for a Land Ethic
When the Logic of history hungers for bread and we hand
out a stone,we are at pains to explain how much the stone resembles bread.I
now describe some of the stones which serve in place of a land
ethic.
One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly
on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no
economic value.Wildflowers and songbirds are examples.Of the
22,000 higher plants and animals native to Wisconsin,it is doubtful whether
more than 5 per cent can be sold,fed,eaten,or otherwise put to economic use.
Yet these creatures are members of the biotic community,and if (as I
believe) its stability depends on its integrity they are entitled to
continuance.
When one of these non-economic categories is threatened
and if we happen to love it,we invent excuses to give it economic importance.
At the beginning of the century songbirds were supposed to be
disappearing.Bird experts jumped to the rescue with some distinctly shaky evidence to the effect
that insects would eat us up if birds failed to control them.The evidence had to be economic in order to be valid.
It is painful to read these roundabouts
today.We have no land ethic yet,but we have at least drawn nearer
the point of admitting that birds should continue as a matter of biotic right,
regardless of the presence or absence of economic advantage to us.
Some
species of trees have been "read out of the party" by
economics-minded foresters because they grow
too slowly,or have too low a sale value to pay as timber crops.In Europe,where forestry is ecologically more
advanced,the non-commercial tree species are recognized as members of the native forest community,to be preserved as
such,within reason.Moreover some
(like beech) have been found to have a valuable function in building up soil fertility.The interdependence of the
forest and its constituent tree species,ground Flora,and fauna is taken forgranted.
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