Environmental history was . . . born out of a moral purpose, with strong political commitments behind it, but also became, as it matured, a scholarly enterprise that had neither any simple, nor any single, moral or political agenda to promote. Its principal goal became one of deepening our understanding of how humans have been affected by their natural environment through time and, conversely, how they have affected that environment and with what results.
Interpretation
Environmental history explores the relationship between humans and the natural world, driven by moral purpose and evolving scholarly inquiry.
This quote by Donald Worster emphasizes the dual nature of environmental history as both a field rooted in ethical and political considerations and as an academic discipline that seeks to objectively analyze the historical interactions between humans and the environment. It highlights the complexity of these relationships and the need for a deeper understanding of their implications over time.
In practice
This quote could be cited in a lecture about the importance of environmental history.
I think that cosmetic enhancements in my profession are just an occupational hazard. But I think, more culturally, I'm interested in starting the conversation about aging gracefully and how, instead of making it a cultural problem, we make it individuals' problems.
That's the thing about suicide. Try as you might to remember how a person lived his life, you always end up thinking about how he ended it.
i usedta live in the world really be in the world free & sweet talkin good mornin & thank-you & nice day uh huh i cant now i cant be nice to nobody nice is such a rip-off regular beauty & a smile in the street is just a set-up
The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living, but dead, or as I prefer to call it, enduring. It means, today, not what current society, much less the court, thinks it ought to mean, but what it meant when it was adopted.
But then he told himself: What does it really mean to be useful? Today's world, just as it is, contains the sum of the utility of all people of all times. Which implies: The highest morality consists in being useless.
There are two worlds we live in: a material world, bound by the laws of physics, and the world inside our mind, which is just as important.
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