721
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_80
Chapter 80
Temptational Obscurity That Brings Hope
to Life
80.1 Obscurity and Redemptive Intuition
We are inclined to call upon obscurity, the nominative pronouns collectively obliging
our stressful, persistent visions of wilderness, whose genes—subjectively, objectively, clearly—are vivid and alive, to break free from the shackles of broken trusts
and obfuscated contracts. One can still walk away, into a place where fellow humans
have not yet conquered crickets and songbirds. In recent phases of that challenge to
reverse what has, increasingly, become a foregone conclusion, countless population
bubbles brimming with feverish hope have endeavored to stave off what to many is
now inevitable.
1
A phrase circulating for many decades that all but assures the death
of nature (Fig. 80.1).
But death is not death so much as the death of individuals. Biomes, cycles, frequencies, volumes, depths, fringes, cores, and other anatomical facets of ecological
reckoning always invoke real ecotones, the transitions we have been evincing
throughout this work. It is not enough to psychoanalyze adulterants and breakdowns. Aftermaths exert inevitable suasions that can be shaped according to the
spirit of renascence inherent to every combination of life forms and instincts. Ice
may melt and skies darken, but the cycles will continue. These are pillars of every
lasting ethical tradition and should be viewed as fundamental to the human heart at
times of ultimate stress and despair. Not vacuous campaigns and speeches, but fragile, intuitive regard that is enshrined by pragmatic conviction and laid bare by the
best of virtuous intentions.
Most, not all, administrations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have
added to the legacy of protecting more and more wildlands. For example, the Forest
1 See https://us.fsc.org/en-us; See, for example, the history of the National Park Service (nps.gov,
and nationalparkservice.org), U.S. Fish and Wildlife (fws.gov), the IUCN (www.iucn.org), UNEP
(unenvironment.org), the WWF (worldwildlife.org), Audubon Society (Audubon.org), Wilderness
Society (wilderness.org), Nature Conservancy (https://www.nature.org/en-us/), PETA (peta.org),
Conservation International (conservation.org), Global Wildlife Conservation (globalwildlife.org),
ICCA Consortium (Indigenous Peoples’ Community Conserved Areas and Territories), (iccaconsortium.org). Even at the most doubtful, compromised levels – U.S. Presidents – some of their
legacies are all but fixed in the imagination of what seems possible: Theodore Roosevelt will
mostly be remembered for having “established five national parks, 18 national monuments, 51 bird
sanctuaries, [the formation of] the National Wildlife Refuge System, and [having] set aside more
than 100 million acres of national forests.”
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_80
Chapter 80
Temptational Obscurity That Brings Hope
to Life
80.1 Obscurity and Redemptive Intuition
We are inclined to call upon obscurity, the nominative pronouns collectively obliging
our stressful, persistent visions of wilderness, whose genes—subjectively, objectively, clearly—are vivid and alive, to break free from the shackles of broken trusts
and obfuscated contracts. One can still walk away, into a place where fellow humans
have not yet conquered crickets and songbirds. In recent phases of that challenge to
reverse what has, increasingly, become a foregone conclusion, countless population
bubbles brimming with feverish hope have endeavored to stave off what to many is
now inevitable.
1
A phrase circulating for many decades that all but assures the death
of nature (Fig. 80.1).
But death is not death so much as the death of individuals. Biomes, cycles, frequencies, volumes, depths, fringes, cores, and other anatomical facets of ecological
reckoning always invoke real ecotones, the transitions we have been evincing
throughout this work. It is not enough to psychoanalyze adulterants and breakdowns. Aftermaths exert inevitable suasions that can be shaped according to the
spirit of renascence inherent to every combination of life forms and instincts. Ice
may melt and skies darken, but the cycles will continue. These are pillars of every
lasting ethical tradition and should be viewed as fundamental to the human heart at
times of ultimate stress and despair. Not vacuous campaigns and speeches, but fragile, intuitive regard that is enshrined by pragmatic conviction and laid bare by the
best of virtuous intentions.
Most, not all, administrations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have
added to the legacy of protecting more and more wildlands. For example, the Forest
1 See https://us.fsc.org/en-us; See, for example, the history of the National Park Service (nps.gov,
and nationalparkservice.org), U.S. Fish and Wildlife (fws.gov), the IUCN (www.iucn.org), UNEP
(unenvironment.org), the WWF (worldwildlife.org), Audubon Society (Audubon.org), Wilderness
Society (wilderness.org), Nature Conservancy (https://www.nature.org/en-us/), PETA (peta.org),
Conservation International (conservation.org), Global Wildlife Conservation (globalwildlife.org),
ICCA Consortium (Indigenous Peoples’ Community Conserved Areas and Territories), (iccaconsortium.org). Even at the most doubtful, compromised levels – U.S. Presidents – some of their
legacies are all but fixed in the imagination of what seems possible: Theodore Roosevelt will
mostly be remembered for having “established five national parks, 18 national monuments, 51 bird
sanctuaries, [the formation of] the National Wildlife Refuge System, and [having] set aside more
than 100 million acres of national forests.”