Analysis Of Stegner's Living On Our Principle

We all (hopefully) want to help the environment, but we don’t want to change the way we live our lives. If we could change, however, it would make a world of a difference in helping Earth's environment. Stegner hopes to provide information to help people want to change a grow an ethical view on how we use the land today. Stegner also talks about how the environment was saved with the help of Reagan and his administration. All this can be paired with wendell Berry's Idea of a Local Economy in a way that would change the world as we know it, in a good way. Stegner urges the public to treat nature better, which would be considered a land ethic. With this in mind Stegner addresses how the government has helped the environment by forcing people to change. Even with this benefit, people should want to change, not be forced to. …show more content…
There is no need to live outside our needs and take more than we can use. This can also be seen in Stegner's Wilderness Letter which outlines the fact that, so long as we can see into the wilderness, we as a species know we have done good. However, the way Stegner goes about this main point in Living on Our Principle ends up being a little different. It seems that Stegner is trying to get his point across with the use of many outside sources. Most notably, Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, which is referenced throughout the essay. Stegner’s hope is that he can use these outside sources to gain more credibility in his efforts to proving that the environment needs to be