Everyone's emerging 🐝 somewhere in the Texas Hill Country
"Where are you going, can I come too?
The whole world is open, a playground for me and you.
I know, we try. And the days they, go by. Until we get old. There's water in the flowers, let's grow." - Mac Miller
Hidden between the major metropolitan areas of trendy Austin and cultural San Antonio, you'll find the heart of Texas. Population and economic growth is increasing urban land expansion outwards to native undeveloped Texas Hill Country.
Land is a resource already under growing human pressure (IPCC 2019), with cumulative effects on the extent and quality of wildlife habitats and human health (EPA 2022). Extensive research supports that conserving undeveloped areas for their ecological services can provide economic, psychological, and physical benefits for all (Meidenbauer et al. 2019; van den Berg, Hartig, and Staats 2007; Wilson 1984).
A sweet Honeybee pollinating away!
By further developing land in the Hill Country, we are willingly and consciously disrupting ecological processes. Habitat loss is the significant driving factor in bee decline (native or non-native).
We can thank the Greeks for the wisdom philosophy has provided our species. Many philosophers who have influenced our culture, like Aristotle, Kant, and Aquinas, have failed to recognize our environment as a fundamental reason for existence. However, not all philosophers have discarded the intrinsic value of nature. Known as the founder of modern utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham had a clear opposed view to previous philosophers on environmental and animal ethics. In his introduction to the principles of morals and legislation, he states, "The question is not can they reason? nor, can they talk? but, can they suffer?."
We find reasons to separate humans as the ultimate species, and it is fast leading us to our destruction, if not physically, ethically. To quote economist E.F. Schumacher (1973), "Modern man does not experience himself as part of nature but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it." Improving sustainability demands action in conservation and protection of nature. The growing consensus of our generations is speaking loud, and as Bentham (1823) declares, "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."
Reference
Bentham, Jeremy. 1823. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/bentham1780.pdf.
Environmental Protection Agency. 2022. “Land Use.” Accessed April 8, 2022. https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/land-use.
IPCC. 2019. “Land is a Critical Resource, IPCC Report Says.” Accessed February 10, 2022. https://www.ipcc.ch/2019/08/08/land-is-a-critical-resource_srccl/.
Meidenbauer, Kimberly L, Cecilia U.D Stenfors, Jaime Young, Elliot A Layden, Kathryn E Schertz, Omid Kardan, Jean Decety, and Marc G Berman. “The Gradual Development of the Preference for Natural Environments.” Journal of environmental psychology 65 (2019): 101328–
Schumacher, E F. 1973. Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered. London: Harper & Row Publishing Inc.
Van Den Berg, Agnes E, Terry Hartig, and Henk Staats. “Preference for Nature in Urbanized Societies: Stress, Restoration, and the Pursuit of Sustainability.” Journal of social issues 63, no. 1 (2007): 79–96.
Warriner, Michael. 2012. “Native Bees in Texas.” Native Plant Society of Texas (United States), June 10, 2012. https://npsot.org/wp/story/2012/2422/.
Wilson, Edward O. Biophilia. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1984