Leave No Trace is a set of guidelines taught to outdoor groups. It's about how to respect natural settings, such as not leaving toilet paper littering the woods or starting a campfire which burns down the forest or even leaves a pit or burn scar on the ground.
It sounds good, but I've always despised it. Why?
To some people, ethics is rules or guidelines. To others, it's philosophy--or deeper.
At the core of native cultures is a respect for the land. It's what sustains the culture itself.
"When the first Europeans landed in the Americas, they described it as one vast untouched wilderness. This was about the highest compliment they could pay to the Native people who had lived there for thousands of years." –Bill Mason
I wonder what it says about us, that we have to work to figure out how to respect the land? We are so far removed from it as a culture that we've forgotten that it sustains us also.
It sounds good, but I've always despised it. Why?
To some people, ethics is rules or guidelines. To others, it's philosophy--or deeper.
At the core of native cultures is a respect for the land. It's what sustains the culture itself.
"When the first Europeans landed in the Americas, they described it as one vast untouched wilderness. This was about the highest compliment they could pay to the Native people who had lived there for thousands of years." –Bill Mason
I wonder what it says about us, that we have to work to figure out how to respect the land? We are so far removed from it as a culture that we've forgotten that it sustains us also.
