The KUSP Land Use Report #18: Air, Land, and Water

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The following Land Use Report is presented by Gary Patton, Executive Director of LandWatch Monterey County. The opinions expressed by Mr. Patton are not necessarily those of KUSP Radio, nor of any of our sponsors.

Air, land, and water make our world. These are the elements we need for life. When we talk about "the environment," this is really what we mean.

When we think about our interaction with the environment, with the world of nature, two different impulses arise. Because we are creatures, ultimately dependent on the natural world, human beings are moved by our environment to an experience of deferential awe. This is not true in every moment, but it remains profoundly and ultimately true, and each one of us, at some time or another, and hopefully more frequently than not, stands with wonder before the world of nature, and gives thanks.

Human beings, however, are not only creatures, but creators as well. Within the world of nature, we build a world of our own design, and when we act in this capacity, we use air, land and water as the mere constituents with which we work.

Finding the proper way to balance these two impulses, our impulse to defer to the world of nature that sustains our life, and our impulse to assert human dominion over it, is at the heart of land use policymaking. In my next report, I want to highlight one local example of how we have established a proper balance between our reverence for nature, and our need to use it for our purposes: the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

For KUSP, this is Gary Patton.

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