The wilderness as natural as it is serves us humans by keeping us alive. Not only does it do this, but it also provides us with oxygen, habitat for plants and wildlife, and a place to unwind. One of the smallest things we could do to help keep the wilderness running would be to not mess with or damage it in any way. Some people may not realize how important the wilderness is to us because they keep on destroying and contaminating it with their ignorance. Therefore, we must conserve the wilderness by obtaining knowledge of its purpose. Once we become more aware of what special qualities it withholds, mankind will realize of how ignorant they have been throughout the past years and will want to do things to prevent the wilderness from dying off. …show more content…
Animals that are a vital necessity to the wilderness ecosystem must have the chance to live their wildlife, without being bothered by the human population. According to the article Benefits of Wilderness, “…wilderness is valuable for its ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value”(Wilderness.net). When we think of the cure for cancer, some people believe that it might actually be found somewhere in the wilderness, because of the many diversities it has of plants and animals. We might think of it as a joke right now but in the future when the researchers find the answer we won’t be laughing. People keep killing and bringing certain animal populations to extinction without hesitation, but the sad part is that, “Only when the last of the animals horns, tusks, skin and bones are sold, will mankind realize that money can never buy back our wildlife” (Wild at Heart). As Henry David once said, “In wilderness is the preservation of the …show more content…
Not only are the animals being affected by the greedy people of the world, but other humans as well. Major international companies sell land to other foreign investors, so they can build luxurious resorts for tourists. What these business investors aren’t aware of is the harm that they are causing upon humans and animals. These poor citizens who have done nothing wrong other than to be themselves are also feeling the negative effects of the damage that is being caused. In fact, “The Masai have been herding cattle across the great plains of Tanzania for generations, their nomadic lifestyle helping to preserve the wildlife of East Africa. Now, they are being forcibly evicted so that tour operators can turn their homelands into vast "nature refuges" for wealthy holiday makers” (Renton). This quote lets us know how people have been kicked out of their lands and are unable to do what they have been doing in the past years due to the fact that the lands are being taken over. Also, “The preserves are used to lure tourists, who are all eager to see the lush rainforests. While this is all nice, it is harming the environment and defeating the purpose of wanting to protect it” (Vargas, Shelby, and Sweeney). The tourist being lured in are expecting to see something beautiful like rainforest and exotic animals in the rainforest, but what they are not aware of is that the tourism
Human beings have made much of purity and are repelled by blood, pollution, putrefaction (Snyder, 119). Nature is sacred. We are enjoying it and destroying it simultaneously. Sometimes it is easier to see charming things than the decomposition hidden in the “shade”.We only notice the beautiful side of nature, which are benefits that nature brings us: food, fresh air, water, landscapes. But we forget the other side, the rottenness of human destruction. That is how human beings create “the other side of the sacred”. We cut trees for papers, but we fail to recognize that the lack of trees is the lack of fresh air. Therefore, it is crucial to acknowledge “the other side of the
At one point in our lives as human beings we began to draw mental lines between ourselves and nature. This is something that has gradually been increasing throughout their years. Most people do not seem to notice all of these constant changes simply because we are used to the type of world we live in now. I believe that in order for somebody to understand what's happening these negative changes need to affect us as individuals. For example, many people don't realize cutting down trees to build businesses will eventually cause the world to be unsustainable. Nature is something very necessary. "Wilderness" in old English was something that had its own will, just like you mentioned in paragraph three. The Wild is a place where wild undomesticated animals should be allowed to roam
Emerson idealizes a wilderness untouched by humans, placing them at opposite poles. In reality, this is not true, for even the national parks and areas set aside to protect nature have been altered by man, whether it be the Native Americans, or the wealthy tourists who sought to "preserve for themselves some remnant of its wild landscape so that they might enjoy the regeneration and renewal that came drone sleeping under the stars...and living off the land" (Cronon 78). Cronon accurately describes the problem with Emerson's belief. If Emerson's "definition" of wilderness were to come true, then humans and nature could not coexist. As expressed by Cronon, in turning the focus outward towards preserving the great mountains and natural areas to fit Emerson's ideal wilderness, people neglect the nature that lies in their own "artificial" community. Instead of eliminating mankind's presence in nature all together, they should strive to create a balanced relationship in which humans and nature can coexist
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) breeds Globally Endangered animals and then introduces them back into the wild. ZSL states that the main reasons of extinct species are: Poaching, Pollution, Climate change, and Over Population of the human race due to the need of homes, shops, hospitals and other amenities. The rain forest once encompassed four billion acres of Earth has now depleted to 2.5 billion acres of Earth within a few hundred years. Wetlands have also been destroyed and the provide drinking water for wildlife and humans. Maybe the solution to this problem is not locking away the animals that are endangered, but cracking down on the destruction of habitats. Maybe there should be places where property is restricted ...
In the article, “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon depicts of how individuals are frequently making the incorrect distinction of what is natural or not. Cronon begins by describing the myths or stereotypes society has made throughout history. Men masculinity is said to rise in the wilderness for the reason he is left with small resources to survive; furthermore, creating the image of cowboys or people who live in a farm to be the perfect candidates for living a natural lifestyle. However, William Cronon towards the end of his article, clarifies his main argument to the audience that people live in the wilderness or coexist with nature. The lifestyles that people have are natural for the reason tress or other plants are found in our cities just as people would find them in the forests. “The tree in the garden could easily have sprung from the same seed as the tree in the
John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Aldo Leopold all have moderately different views and ideas about the environment in terms of its worth, purpose, use and protection. At one extensively non-anthropocentric extreme, Muir’s views and ideas placed emphasis on protecting environmental areas as a moral obligation. That is to say, Muir believed that wilderness environments should be used for divine transcendence, spiritual contemplation, as a place for repenting sins and obtaining devotional healing, rather than being used for exploitative materialistic greed and destructive consumption, such as industrialism, mining, and lumbering. At the other extreme, anthropocentric, Pinchot views nature simply as natural resources. In other words, nature is explicitly
John Muir once said, “Where one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” His understanding of the connection of nature to the world would be helpful regarding today’s ethical issue of clearcutting happening in Tongass National Forest. Firstly, this practice involves completely clearing an area of trees, regardless of the shape and usability. Then, the remaining scrub and brush are just burned off which leaves smoky haze for several days. Tongues Nation Forest is considered the “crown jewel” of America’s forest because it is the home to 800 years old trees, black and brown bears, wolves, bald eagles, Sitka black-tailed deer, moose, humpback, whales, orcas, sea otters, Steller sea lions. However, Sealaska, the largest private land owner in the Southeast Alaska wants to invade the forest through clear cut logging.Clearcutting or clearfelling can have serious environmental impacts. Abrupt removal of shady shield trees will
We, as humans, mistreat the animal population. On a smaller scale, the human population wastes domestic and wild, animals for medical testing, for their fur, and for entertainment such as dog fighting. These things may not seem to be globally threatening, yet the constant waste of certain species of animals and the destruction of an animal's natural habitat will lead to the endangerment and eventually the extinction of the species. Furthermore, many people are unaware that the world is currently in the midst of the largest mass extinction in history.
The wilderness idea takes into account that the wilderness is often persecuted for insignificant gains. The story mentions how trees are cut down to later become comic books or cigarette boxes, which are thrown into the garbage can moments after use. Surely better uses could be found for the very things that provide life to the human race. I agree with this view because I love being in nature. It always teaches me something that man-made things cannot. Being in the wilderness is one of the only places where I experience true silence, especially in the winter when there are no bugs. Silence is one of the most significant reasons as to why I support this view, because true silence dies with true wilderness. Stegner’s reasons for the preservation of the wilderness revolve around the idea that we must keep nature around because without it we could lose our sanity or even forget about it. He talks about how if humans destroy the last of the American wilderness, the only remnants we will still obtain are the animals who have been bound to the zoo. Jesus said that humans are supposed to use all the earth to our benefit, including killing animals to eat, but destroying the wilderness for almost
America’s wilderness areas are vitally important for our nation's health and well-being. Preserving America’s Wilderness areas is necessary for conservation of resources, it is necessary for the survival of Human, and necessary in maintaining biodiversity.
Many years ago, people saw the wilderness as a savage wasteland, but today, it is viewed as “the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth.” (Cronon) He discusses this changed point of view by stating the difficulties that society will have rectifying environmental ailments if it stops viewing wilderness as “a dualistic picture in which the human is completely outside the nature.” (Cronon) This is understandable because humans rely on others to create opinions, and they do not know how to form their own thoughts and solutions to issues such as environmental ones. Therefore, it is with great importance that humans begin to learn how to formulate their own thoughts and share those personal thoughts with others, such as sharing solutions about environmental
that is hard to answer. Why not just leave the wilderness alone, and let it
His often utilization of words such as wild, paradise, and pristine in describing these naturalscapes, provided a misinformed idea of what the American West was truly like. This misinformed idea rapidly changed into what people expected from wilderness. They expect to see scenes reminiscent of the Hudson River school and be cleansed by the healing power of Mother Earth (Muir). Through Muir’s expensive definitions on what constitutes a wilderness he has altered the meaning of it. In the late nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, the wilderness served more as an idea than a definable work, Muir and his writing played a major role in defining the wilderness to the city bound masses. 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
Introduction "Wilderness is an anchor to windward. Knowing it is there, we can also know that we are still a rich nation, tending our resources as we should — not a people in despair searching every last nook and cranny of our land for a board of lumber, a barrel of oil, a blade of grass, or a tank of water. "(Anderson). Do you agree with this statement? That we should not stoop so low as a country.
Wilderness or Nature as many generations have called it. Has been a great source of resource and caused many great dilemmas throw-out time. We have to realize many people have different mentalities and we will not always agree. The three readings point out how many ideologies, religion, beliefs, and necessity can cause the destruction of wilderness. John Muir had a great amount of passion for the environment. His beliefs where that nature is a temple, God created it and we should embrace it, love it and take care of it. As for Gifford Pinchot He believed that humans have the right to use up the resources as we stand at the top of the food chain. Of course we were meant to use them responsibly. Despite that he created the most amount of protection