Environmental Values 20 (2011): 265–283. © 2011 The White Horse Press doi: 10.3197/096327111X12997574391841 Mercy as an Environmental Virtue MaTT FErkany Department of Teacher Education 313 Erickson Hall Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1032, USA Email: ferkany@msu.edu aBSTraCT recent work on environmental virtue tends to focus on the role of virtues like love, care, respect, humility and wonder for nature. This essay considers the merits of regarding mercy for nature as an environmental virtue. It argues that mercy for nature is neither conceptually confused nor unacceptably anthropo- centric, is exhibited by an important exemplar of environmental virtue, and is compatible with virtues of love, care, respect and humility. It also argues that efforts to inculcate environmental mercy may help facilitate the development of more caring, loving and respectful attitudes toward nature. kEyWOrDS Environmental justice, compassion, forgiveness, retribution, nonanthropocentrism 1. In an early passage of A Sand County Almanac, aldo Leopold tells a story about John Muir in which Muir attempted to buy the family farm from his brother. The year was 1865 and Muir’s forward-looking intention was to convert the farm into a wildlower sanctuary. The brother refused to sell, but in Leopold’s retelling, Muir ‘could not suppress the idea’. Consequently, Leopold declares, ‘1865 still stands in Wisconsin history as the birth year of mercy for all things natural, wild, and free’. 1 In describing Muir’s plans as initiating mercy for nature, Leopold is evi- dently praising Muir. Mercy for nature would be a good thing. But is he right about that? Curiously the role of mercy in environmentally virtuous conduct