Planning 3 Introduction (Module 1a)

I begin my lecture with the following quotations:

Improving the environment should not mean only correcting pollution or the other evils of technological and urban growth. It should be a creative process through which man and nature continue to evolve in harmony. At its highest level, civilized life is a form of exploration which helps man rediscover his unity with nature. In the words of T. S. Eliot,
“We shall not cease from exploring,
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

In every part of the world, the interplay between man and nature has commonly taken the form of a true symbiosis-namely a biological relationship which alters somewhat the two components of the symbiotic system in a way that is beneficial to both. Such transformations, achieved through symbiosis, account in large part for the immense diversity of places on earth and for the fitness between man and environment so commonly observed in areas that have been settled and have remained stable for long periods of time.
. . . by using scientific knowledge and ecological wisdom, we can manage the earth so as to create environments which are ecologically stable, economically profitable, esthetically rewarding, and favorable to the continued growth of civilization.

-RENE DUBROS
Environmental Improvement (Air, Water, & Soil)
The Graduate School
US Department of Agriculture
Washington DC., 1986

The task of the artist is to sense more keenly than others the harmony of the world, the beauty and the outrage of what man has done to it, and poignantly to let people know.
-ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN
Nobel Lecture

A civilization is only a way of life. A culture is the way of making that way of life beautiful.
-FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Quoted: Saturday Review, Oct. 4, 1975.

We have met the enemy . . .
And he is us.
-from the cartoon feature POGO by Walt Kelly

With these quotes, we start our discussion on the importance of having proper planning to provide us the environment for healthful and pleasant living as well as give an overview of the relationship of man to other forms of life on earth and to the environment as well.

(will still revise this, so pls. post comments)

go to Module 1b: http://pupclass.blogspot.com/2008/05/planning-3-introduction-module-1b.html