In this foreword, former U.S, president Jimmy Carter stresses the importance of the preservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as he argues that this refuge is not only the last remain of American wilderness but also a "symbol of our national heritage."Carter builds up his argument to persuade his audiences by using logos, a personal anecdote, and pathos.Carter begins by recounting in a nostalgic way his experience of hiking and camping in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with his wife. He describes that experience as " one of the most unforgettable and humbling experiences of our lives," to illustrate the wonderfulness of the refuge. Carter also gives detailed descriptions of the wild animals and plants of which he encountered during his hike, saying that there is a "timeless quality about this great land." Upon reading these descriptions, the audiences will involuntarily create an image of the refuge that is similar to that an untouched-by-human-civilization paradise which, in the modern world, seems to exist only in fairytales. …show more content…
He puts emphasis on the scarceness of refuges like the Arctic Refuge and also implies that if this refuge is lost, America may forever lose the national heritage that was once the pride of her. He states that "there are few places on earth as wild and free as the Arctic Refuge," to validate that preserves like this are rare and declining. He also states that "it is a symbol of our national heritage, a remnant of frontier America that our first settlers once called wilderness. Little of that precious wilderness remains," to give a historical meaning to the staying intact of the
From the prologue through chapter one in “Wilderness and the American Mind”, the author emphasizes the affect wilderness had on the Europeans during the colonization of America. In today’s society, we are familiar with the concept of wilderness but few of us have experienced the feeling of being encapsulated in the unfamiliar territory. Today we long for wilderness, crave it even. We use it as an outlet to escape the pace of life. However, we have a sense of safety that the Europeans did not. We are not isolated in the unfamiliar, help is usually a phone call away. Though we now view the wilderness as an oasis because we enter at our own terms, in the early colonial and national periods, the wilderness was an unknown environment that was viewed as evil and dangerous.
Although Leopold’s love of great expanses of wilderness is readily apparent, his book does not cry out in defense of particular tracts of land about to go under the axe or plow, but rather deals with the minutiae, the details, of often unnoticed plants and animals, all the little things that, in our ignorance, we have left out of our managed acreages but which must be present to add up to balanced ecosystems and a sense of quality and wholeness in the landscape.
Abbey and McCandless experience different degrees of separation from industrial living, but neither wholly rejects it. Abbey, a National Park Service employee in Utah, states “I am here not only to evade for a while the clamor and filth and confusion of the cultural apparatus but also to confront immediately and directly if it’s possible, the bare bones of existence” (6). While Abbey surround...
Cronon, William “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90
While describing his trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, President Carter paints and appealing picture in the minds of Americans. He mentions a “brilliant mosaic of wildflowers, mosses and lichens that hugged the tundra” (paragraph 2). As these words roll off this tongue, a beautiful landscape rolls into the minds of Americans. Furthermore, President Carter details “As the never-setting sun circled above the horizon, we watched muskox … lumber along braided rivers that meander toward the Beaufort Sea.” (paragraph 2) After hearing this description, an elegant sunset and with innocent animals roaming about pops into mind. Picturing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in this alluring manner will greatly decrease the desire to harm it. By utilizing imagery, President Carter convinces Americans of the beauty of the reserve and therefore the need to preserve
The wild is a place to push yourself to the limit and take a look at who you truly are inside. “Wilderness areas have value as symbols of unselfishness” (Nash). Roderick Nash’s philosophy states that the wilderness gives people an opportunity to learn humility but they fight this because they do not have a true desire to be humble. Human-kind wants to give out the illusion that they are nature lovers when in reality, they are far from it. “When we go to designated wilderness we are, as the 1964 act says, "visitors" in someone else's home” (Nash). People do not like what they cannot control and nature is uncontrollable. Ecocentrism, the belief that nature is the most important element of life, is not widely accepted. The novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer depicts a young boy who goes on an exploration to teach himself the true concept of humility. Chris McCandless, the protagonist, does not place confidence in the universal ideology that human beings are the most significant species on the planet, anthropocentrism.
Robbins, Jim. Last Refuge: The Environmental Showdown in Yellowstone and the American West. New York: Morrow, 1993. Print.
It is an unquestioned fact that the climate is changing. There is abundant evidence that the world is becoming warmer and warmer. The temperature of the global land average temperature has increased by about 8.5 degrees centigrade from 1880 to 2012 (Karr, et al 406). The one or two degrees increase in temperature can cause dramatic and serious consequences to the earth as well as humans. More extreme weather occurs, such as heat waves and droughts. The Arctic Region is especially sensitive to global climate change. According to the data in recent decades, the temperature in the Arctic has increased by more than 2 degrees centigrade in the recent half century (Przybylak 316). Climate change has led to a series of environmental and ecological negative
John Muir believed that for the future of America that the natural world should be protected. Muir felt that the environment of much of the United States was not protected properly and the locations that were protected were not managed adequately. Muir felt that Americans had much to gain from the protection of their national resources and park lands. In John Muir’s book Our National Parks, written in 1901 he states: “Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own...
He believes that the wilderness has helped form us and that if we allow industrialization to push through the people of our nation will have lost part of themselves; they will have lost the part of themselves that was formed by the wilderness “idea.” Once the forests are destroyed they will have nothing to look back at or to remind them of where they came from or what was, and he argues everyone need to preserve all of what we have now.
Essay based on adaptation from Former US President Jimmy Carter, Foreword to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, A Photographic Journey by Subhankar Banerjee Jimmy Carter, former the United States President, builds an argument to persuade his audience that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should not be developed for industry. He does so with the adequate usages of persuasive elements, such as appropriate selection of dictions, which appeals to the emotion and provokes the sense of duty, and metaphoric expressions in order to deliver the greatness of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which should be bequeathed soundly; Carter illustrates his claim successfully with the features that strengthen his logic and
Environmentalist and desert-lover, Edward Abbey in his essay “The Great American Desert” warns readers about the perilous dangers of the American deserts while simultaneously stirring curiosity about these fascinating ecosystems. He both invites and dissuades his readers from visiting the deserts of North America through the use of humor and sarcasm. In this essay, he is rhetorically successful in arguing that the open spaces of the undeveloped deserts are sacred places in need of respect and protection through his clever use of pathos and logos.
I think that he is trying to say that wilderness is something to be cherished and loved, because it gives definition and meaning to his life. His whole life was spent looking after and trying to preserve the wilderness. This is a plea for the preservation. I think that Leopold believes one day a lot of what we have today and he want it to be preserved so that in the future people have the chance to see there cultural inheritance like our ancestors let us see by preserving things.
Muir’s wilderness is rooted in the idea of an aesthetically pleasing natural scape given they fit into certain criteria such as, “ none of Nature’s landscape’s are ugly so long as they are wild” (Muir). The attachment of this emphasis on an aesthetically pleasing landscape was partial truth, which drove people out the national parks. While these places where indeed wild and beautiful, Muir sold the masses on this idea of all nature being pristine and pure, when in reality that was not the
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.