Humanity's Responsibility To Nature

By tracing the relationship between humanity and nature from the Victorian era to the present day, author Kirk Wallace Johnson emphasizes the idea that humans have a responsibility to the natural world. In the Victorian era, it was common practice for both private individuals and professional naturalists to amass collections of species and specimens for both personal and scientific purposes. Furthermore, feathers, furs, etc. were used in industries like fashion and fishing as symbols of both beauty and status. The ethos of the era was that the natural world is full of unlimited resources and those resources are naturally at human disposal. However, there were some, like Alfred Russel Wallace, a professional naturalist, who recognized, likely through his better-than-average understanding of nature, that this was not the case and that humanity has the power to destroy the environment. As the Victorian-era came to a close...