AMERICA IS BLESSED with an abundance of natural beauty. Our country boasts a greater diversity of climates and landscapes than most, from tropical beaches and sandy deserts to wind-swept farmland and snowcapped peaks. This bountiful earth has provided a fertile birthplace for the Great American Experiment.
Imagine yourself atop Pike’s Peak, among the first of the Rocky Mountains that American settlers encountered on their journey west. From up there, vast plains stretch out to the east, and rugged mountains dot the landscape to the west. Down below, the city’s buildings look like tiny specks, barely noticeable amid the landscape’s grandeur. No wonder this vista inspired Katharine Lee Bates to pen the verses for “America the Beautiful.”
From that vantage point, you might naturally feel a desire to protect America’s natural treasures at all costs so that others may have a similar experience. But at the same time, we must use the land to provide for our needs. After all, the “amber waves of grain” you see in the distance serve the clear purpose of feeding a hungry nation.
It’s tempting to see a conflict here between preserving nature as it is now, and our need to transform the land for things like agriculture, mining, and housing. How are we to find the right balance?
But we must resist accepting this false dichotomy. Promoting human prosperity and protecting the environment need not be conflicting goals. Instead, our thriving can depend on a healthy and beautiful environment. Our continued use of natural resources depends on careful stewardship. And our continued enjoyment of nature depends on our ability to transform the land around us.
You can see that from the mountaintop. The fact that you can easily drive a car or take a train all the way up the summit shows how we’ve tamed the unforgiving terrain in a positive way. Every year millions of visitors across the country are inspired by breathtaking scenes of nature because they’ve been made accessible. Nature is not a museum, walling it off doesn’t save it.Our challenge now is to embrace systems, like property rights, that encourage productive, useful, and lifegiving relationships with nature. That way, nature can meet our needs and we continue to enjoy all the wonders it provides.