> Does Dr. Millstein answer the question she poses? I'd be interested in hearing the conclusion she comes to. 

Not really. As philosophers often do, she offers the question up as a starting point, which is essentially what I did. 

As a beekeeper, a naturalist, even as an artist, I find bees attractive and infinitely fascinating. However, I think the idea that we need bees, or that we need to protect the environment for us -- is a dead end. This is why:

Most environmentalist dogma focuses either on guilt -- it is a crime to destroy the natural world; or fear -- we are harming the natural world and we will die. 

The problem with the former is that it is basically a moral argument. Harming nature is wrong. I may believe it, but I can't prove it. Also, one must realize that in the big picture, nature will always prevail. 

The problem with the second technique -- fear -- is that people gradually become immune to such threats. And using threats and fear to induce a particular behavior almost always backfires. Furthermore, framing it as a question of self-interest affirms that our relationship with nature is basically about us and our needs. This is the very attitude that has put the natural world at risk. 

So, how do we frame this as an environmental question which is inclusive rather than based on humankind vs nature, one that tries to inspire appreciation, even love of nature and the things in it? Because in the end, we protect what we love.

The pursuit of this topic led me to Maya Lin. She said:

"I am going to try to wake you up to things that are missing that you are not even aware are disappearing, because if we can get you to think about something — you know, how can we protect it if we don’t even see it?"

And yet, by focusing on what we have lost, how bad humans are, I think we promote discouragement. Somehow, we have to focus on what we have. Nature is still here, albeit in a different form compared to before humans became so populous. And I regard humankind to be inseparable from nature; Robinson Jeffers said "Love that, not man Apart from that."

PLB

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