David Thoreau's Failure In Protecting Our Relationship With The Environment

“The modern form of the word environment comes from an older word that we hardly use anymore: environ, to surround, to form a ring around, to encircle” (Stoll 3). The meaning of the word environment did not become a major factor in the lives of humanity until 1945. The tragic events that led to the end of World War II sparked a chief movement in history: American Environmentalism. Global decision-making changed as well as human unity due to the mere purpose that fate of all people and the environment became intertwined (Stoll 1). I will further discuss the dramatic attempts made by some Americans to bring the importance of preserving our environment to the surface to show if and how we have evolved.

After reading a book and watching a movie, I realized humans think we are kings of the world, that our hold on this planet is eternal. But it's not true. There are many catastrophes, man-made and otherwise, that could befall us and wipe us from the face of the Earth.  The Earth would eventually recover.  Humans won't get that chance.  One of the lessons of The Road is that we need to protect both our environment and our sense of

Henry Thoreau moved to the woods to do observations about nature. He did it to see what it was like without internet or electronics. He believes from the reading that things were different without technology well, before electronics. He used an example of a man using his fingers and toes to count, so i believe that was better to him then using a calculator. He wants to do things how he was tought. I agree that a lot of people want and or wanted to do things on their own not with technology. Henry stated, “we are determined to be starved before we are hungry.” To me he is saying something about the how the hospitals can be now that technology is growing. I agree with some of the things he said, but not all of them. It sometimes is a good thing

Thoreau gives a lot of reasons on his reading why we should live of nature, and how we can be free from society and human beings. On the other hand, I am totally disagree with him on his point of view of finding happiness. He declares, “Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We have to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need no come to open war” (Thoreau, Solitude part 13). He describes society as a set of rules were we do not have to be perfect and agree on what everyone saying and that is not true because as society we have the right of freedom of speech which can share our

This book is the story of an opportunistic approach to remedy and adapt to the drastic changes humanity has caused to the Earth while also embracing the role humans play in the Anthropogenic era. Humans will always continue to build environments, but the concern now is how are we going to build better environments. These issues will challenge humanity and question our values. How we build the environment around us in the future will be based on whether or not embracing the Anthropogenic era will indeed lead to a sustainable planet or just be a quick fix to the deeper issues of human behavior that have led us astray from maintaining a sustainable planet.

In the decade of the 1970s, the United Nations organized several important meetings on the human environment to study a very serious problem . We humans are destroying the world around us . We are using up all of our natural resources . We must learn to conserve them, or life will be very bad for our children and our grandchildren .

Henry David Thoreau is a man of many facets; a man who refuses to conform to what the masses believe is acceptable. He calls for the rejection of complexity and for a change in mankind’s view of life. Thoreau, in his many writings, demands change in a stagnant society. He emphasizes respect for nature, even to the point of blatant disrespect for humanity.

Some philosophers do not consider Henry David Thoreau a real philosopher because his ideas are considered to be so much more different than traditional viewpoints. He continued to focus on the individual, but Thoreau chooses emotion and nature over reasoning and humanity. This was considered bizarre at the time because most philosophers were after a specific kind of wisdom or knowledge. Thoreau, on the other hand, stated that humans could find any knowledge they are searching for through nature.

The importance of the environment appears when many disconcerting events throughout the years have emerged: tsunami and flooding, drought and starving, pollution, declining animal populations and many others. Looking behind these events is make us realize that we have caused irreversible damaged, through our daily behaviors.

Reading through his journal, it seems that Thoreau is most committed to his relationship with Nature. Although he is not quite a hermit, it is a rarity for him to spend a significant amount of time in the company of other people. Moreover, when Thoreau reflects upon these interactions in writing, he describes them as being tedious and unfulfilling. Contrastingly, over the course of my life I have found that interactions with other people provide my greatest sense of fulfillment and happiness. I believe that an essential ingredient to living a gratifying life is to try to positively color someone else’s experience. To some degree I believe that Thoreau also felt this way because of his intensions of being a teacher, as well as his efforts in

Human beings are very fortunate to be living on Earth. Even though humans get everything we need from these precious lands, we always feel that we have to modify it. Reshaping our world to make it more suitable for individuals is not the way to go. Humans have the desire for scientific process, and are driven to make the world a better place; though in reality, the outcomes of our environment and our selves say otherwise. Our ways of science, agriculture practices, fracking and irrigation practices, ways of mining, inventions of plastics, and even our advancement in technology is leading us to the consequences of not only hurting our species, but our environment as a whole. People believe that mankind will learn to utilize Earth’s

It’s indescribable how fortunate humanity is to inhabit earth, and be given the opportunity to persist in an endless journey both rewarding and intricate. Humanity like most words has multiple definitions that describe what it truly means to be human distinctively. For the most part, humanity will be defined as a successful population, that will commit to primal instincts to not only persevere the hardships of life, but discover tools that will secure gratification over sustainability at no cost. Humans during their origin have had a primary goal that has formed a semi-neutral bond with the planet over the past centuries. This agreement has benefited humans not only as a species in the quest of survival, but the earths need to be depended on and be cared for to continue providing the essential environment for life. As humanity discovered the possibility to grow, and become something more than an obedient group of primitive animals restricted by large mass of vital materials. The decision to expand as a population both literally and innovatively change the world with severe consequences. Now with the ever-growing presence of industrialization stripping the world of a constrained reserve of raw materials, no one s left to remind humanity of its original agreement with earth. Currently, Human sustainability faces self-inflicted harms such as extreme growth in CO2 emissions, and the over consumption of limited environmental materials which can be substantially minimized by

“Thoreau is our national conscience: the voice in the American wilderness, urging us to be true to ourselves and to live in harmony with nature” (Schulz). Henry David Thoreau was a pinnacle part of the American Transcendental movement, which gripped the United States of America in the nineteenth century, and laid the groundwork for societal changes while cultivating a national interest in nature. Thoreau took an evident disliking to the American society he was a part of , as well as the world, and by embracing the freedom he found through solitude his eagerness to write could thrive. Throughout his life, Henry voiced his opinion on slavery, corporal punishment, and government through the medium of essays while conveying his passionate love for the great American landscape, using literature. Without the work of David Thoreau the push for social reform, that is increasingly prevalent in the present day, would not be as powerful and the beauty of the natural world would be lost on the eyes of many.

Whether individuals choose to believe in it or not, environmental destruction is a very real and apparent social problem that needs to be addressed before it is too late to save the Earth. Numerous factors such as the climate change, disposal of waste, deforestation, and the quality of air and water impact the destruction of our world. The majority of the blame for our Earth’s deterioration falls on the human race, however, some of the blame does fall on industries, that for example may improperly dispose of their waste. Because of the actions and behaviors of humans as a whole, the environment is suffering irreversible damage. The small population of people that do advocate for change or engage in environment-friendly activities is not enough to help fix the environment alone.

The Earth is dominated by human activity and the impact so far has been overwhelming. As a species we have changed the environment more than any other species. What drives us to do this can be blamed for success to survive and adapt in most environments. Humanity learns to take control and use the environment to benefit from the resources there. The demand for what we want and what we need to survive is bought by currency and controlled by society and politics. Science wants to create easier ways to change the environment. While religion and culture try to enhance beliefs and values among the world’s people.