While most people in this day and age worry about things like jobs, family matters and social richness, Roderick Nash worries about the status of our planet earth in years to come. Before reading this article I thought to myself, what do I care about what the world will be like in the Fourth Millennium? I will be dead, my kids will be dead, and their kids will be dead and their kids after that. So why should I worry about what the world will be like after that? Then I got to the word “legacy” on the second page. I may not be a historian, but I too “am concerned about how the future will regard what happened to the planet on our watch.” We may not be here to witness the Fourth Millennium but what we do and the decisions we make today will either bless or damn the generations to come.
In his essay, Nash explains that the purpose of his work is to promote and help generate ideas about what to do to change the path we humans are on because it does not seem to be even remotely sustainable. Our population is growing at uncontrollable speeds and we’re expanding at an unsustainable rate. Both of these factors (and these examples of two of many) are jeopardizing species diversity and exhausting the Earth’s resources. It seems that “our” thought process was we took over, we are taking over and we will continue to take over until we cannot take over anymore… but it is obvious that this is not going to work indefinitely.
Back in the day when people were hunters and gatherers, humans were a part of the wild. It was when the desire for more and more and more outdid the idea that we should get by with only what we needed to survive that the ecosystem was doomed and the “mental line” between wilderness and civilization was drawn. This idea of the wilderness didn’t exist before we “civilized” land by fencing it in. Wilderness is just a place that that hasn’t been compromised by people (yet). According to the Bible, “‘wilderness’ was the land God cursed.” This seems senseless seeing that we are now trying so hard to preserve it. And if this almighty God thinks the wilderness is so bad, why are we trying to preserve it? Is it because of the priceless beauty of trees and grass when they haven’t been cut down? Or is it because of how awing it is to see hundreds of species successfully cohabitate when we humans can’t? Or at least not without causing some species to become extinct… That’s a different matter entirely, but it seems hypocritical to me that God would “curse” the wilderness if that same God “created” the Earth.
It appears that in the last two centuries, scholarly people have started to catch on to the fat that we aren’t doing something right. We have finally figured out that bigger does not equal better (sorry Texas). We’ve realized that we’ve taken the whole idea of the frontier too far because it’s ending. In addition, it scares me that people might be starting to look to the galaxies to take over and expand. Seriously? Enough is enough. Anyway, it seems that we are starting to get back on some kind of track with the establishment of national parks. On paper, it looks like a good thing but in reality, it’s not. We’re doing it for tourism purposes to boost our economies. We’re doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, which poses a new question: what the heck is wrong with our moral compass?
A lot.
I also did not really think about what the world would be like in the Fourth Millennium, nor did I really care either. After reading Island Civilization, it made me realize how important it is to really realize that we need to be thinking about the future generations to come.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to think that our population is growing and if we don’t make some changes, who knows how much longer humans and nature will last. Our society does always want more and more than what we have and we need to be focusing on what we need in order to survive so that we can save our ecosystem. I believe that there needs to be no line between civilization and the wilderness. In “Island Civilization,” I also did not understand why God would “curse” the wilderness if that same God “created” the Earth.
I do think that the idea of National parks is great. However, I do agree that it seems more for tourism purposes to boost our economies. I feel as though we all need to make changes in order for there to be life in the Fourth Millennium.