Aldo Leopold, Green lagoon, Colorado River trip, 1922 (source)
This is a call Leopold heard when he looked into the eyes of the dying mother wolf: ‘I realised then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain.’
But somewhat forgotten in the interpretations and debates his ideas have generated is a point that is uncomfortable and easily overlooked. Thinking like a mountain, for Leopold, is about learning to live in fear.
Excellent essay. In a 2013 paper, Jennifer Bagelman countered Didier Bigo’s expression, “a politics of unease” with her own critique of what she called “a politics of ease.” This strikes me as a critique of our ecology of ease.