Chapter 6 "Earth's Green Mantle" Summary

Water, soil, and plants create the world that sustains humans and all other animal life. Without plants, no animal life could exist - including humans, but humans hold a narrow view of plants, using them when they are immediately useful but destroying them if an immediate use for them is not obvious. Weeds are simply plants that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, as far as humans are concerned. The business of chemical weed killers is booming because people approach plant life without thinking about any perspective but their own immediate desires.

One example of man's arrogant approach to plants is the campaign in the American West to replace vast expanses of sagebrush with grasslands. There is an extensive explanation of the function of sagebrush within its ecosystem, and of its absolutely...