Introduction

From the moment you were born, life has been a competition. Your parents competed with each other on who got to hold the new baby first, and then instantly competed to see who wouldn’t have to change the first diaper. Growing up was a competition between siblings and classmates; who was taller, who was smarter, who was faster, and most importantly who got the most candy on Halloween. Life seems to be competition. We compete every day, and that can be taxing. So what do we do? We look to relax and that venue for relaxation over centuries has always been to go to someplace simpler, someplace void of distraction, someplace that loses the fight of competition. That place is nature.

Yet today, even nature seems to be filled with competition. Different groups view the value of the environment through different lenses, giving them each their own opinion on nature’s use. Professor Howard Ernst provides three groups to address the three competing interests concerning the environment in his book Fight for the Bay. These groups, the Dark Greens, the Light Greens, and the Cornucopians, all value nature and the environment, they just value different components of it creating conflict amongst the groups.


It is important to understand the reasoning for each group, however, because each group plays a vital role in the protection and preservation of the environment as a whole.