The science of ecology continues to predict complex repercussions from inconsiderate interference with ecosystems.  When entire species of mammals, birds, and reptiles disappear, when thousands of species of flora disappear and thousands more are in the process of disappearing, and when we now know that man himself is simply a part of the biotic whole, and that his very future existence is dependent on many other living things, isn’t it time to awaken further from our destructive trance-state of indifference toward the survival of the natural world?  The question may come down to this: "Does man want to continue to exist or not?

I am indebted to Charles Juzek and Susan Mehrtens for providing me with the 4 fundamental ‘laws’ of ecology.  Here’s how they write them:

1)  Everything is connected to everything else (yes that includes humans).  Clearly quantum physics, modern biological and DNA research, weather research, oceanic research, cosmic research, etc., have played their part in forming such a basic principle.

2)  Everything must go somewhere (this is a rewording of the law of physics that states that matter is neither created nor destroyed).

3)  Nature knows best (humans know very little about managing an ecosystem).   

4)  There’s no such thing as a free lunch (this is an economic verity; you get nothing for nothing.  And if we want wilderness, back country, and parks preserved, we must do something about it - personally).

In Nature and Madness, Paul Shepherd (whom Roszak believes may be the first ecopsychologist) argues that our disregard for the earth deepens into a kind of insanity as we lose touch with the other animals that have played an age-old role in shaping the human mind itself.  What I find of even greater importance (perhaps) is that our estrangement from nature has significantly altered the way we raise and educate our kids - especially boys.

We now have millions of men who claim both the right and the need to destroy other living things - as a sport - which is clearly in response to their own insecurities; their own deep inner fears about their own fragile existences.  Especially since World War II, it seems obvious that the environmental crisis can be traced directly to male-gender identity crisis: “How can I be a man in a world that is quickly becoming a women’s world?”  For out of the great malaise after WW II came the rise of professional sports - which now dominates the lives of most American men.

Roszak has shown that mainstream psychologists haven’t got a clue about how to help men find a new identity in a world that now requires less and less physical strength.  James Hillman, another prominent psychologist co-wrote We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World’s Getting Worse.  The typical lives of men is described as job, sex, and sports.  And that lifestyle has and is producing enormous discontent.  Many men are on their third marriage - and it’s in trouble.  What’s really going on?

In Roszak’s view, the entire mental health field is adrift.  According to Roszak, the DSM (Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) “never asks about the quality of people’s relationship to the natural world...”  Yet research shows again and again that time in the wild places can be deeply therapeutic, especially for the young people who are really struggling with an archaic school system dying in a rapidly changing world.  

I recently read that 66% of all the anti-depressants sold in the world - are sold in America.  66%!!!  America has slightly more than 4% of the world’s population and takes anti-depressants as if they were giants eating jelly beans.  Many people now in the ecological movements were once mentally troubled.  They’d simply lost their way - like so many millions of others.  Most were deeply depressed and unable to even hold a job.  One such person said, “talking isn’t going to do them (the mentally troubled) any good long term.  But when people get involved in helping conserve the natural world, an amazing healing effect comes with it.”

So it seems that when man stops destroying his natural environment, or gets involved in helping some part of the natural world endure, his own mental health improves.  How much more evidence do we need before we change the way we behave toward the animals and plants and rivers and creeks and mountains and deserts and oceans?  We at Ultralight Wilderness Toilet have dedicated our lives to preserving, protecting, and expanding wilderness.  And, yes, we know, we have to bring our own lunch.