Echo Defense, By Edward Abbey

According to William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness”, the main concerns with the wilderness term being humanly constructed and lack of concern with the local environments. Cronon emphasize much of the historical and philological meanings of wilderness as a human construct via spiritual and religious perspectives. He desired for people stop putting so much emphasis on the above and beyond that is out of our reach and focus on the present. He pushed this into the idea of one should start putting emphasis and care into one’s own environment rather than just focusing on environments beyond the local one. He believes change should start locally.

The modern Environment Movement began with the passing of the Wilderness Act of 1964. The act established a National Wilderness System and created 9 millions acres. The main influence and writer of the act Howard Zahniser, who felt that we needed wilderness as it takes us away from technology that gives us perspective of mastering the environment rather than being a part of it (Nash, 2001). With the passing of the act Americans questioned both preservation and conservation. A new culture emerged in America that rejected societal norms and praised independence and freedom. This culture developed in the youth of America and sparked change in preservation growth and the overall outlook of wilderness.

In “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon illustrates the paradox within the notion of wilderness, describing that if wilderness is that which lies beyond civilization -- beyond humankind, then so is the notion of nature outside the realm of the human... that humans are therefore, unnatural. Further, he explains that if our concept of nature (and ultimately our concept of God) is outside of humanity, then our existence is synonymous with the downfall of nature. That wilderness is purely a construct of civilization is central to this argument.  For example, Cronon asserts that “the removal of Indians to create an ‘uninhabited wilderness’---uninhabited as never before in human history of the place---reminds us just how invented, just how constructed, the American wilderness really is” (pg.79). Instead of in isolation from civilization, Cronon finds that his most spiritual experiences with nature have always been closer to home… a sense of wildness (versus wilderness) can be found in one’s backyard, gazing from a front porch, and in the melding of the human experience with mother nature. One of Into the Wild’s final scenes drives home this idea by altering the literal point of view that main character, Chris McCandless, has had of both himself and of the world since the beginning of his two year journey.  Into the Wild attempts to dramatizes Cronon’s argument to rethink wilderness; we will examine how the film succeeds, and where it fails, to support its premise.

The relationship between people and their environment in A Land Remembered is one where the profit from land exploitation is naturally corrupting and exponentially increases the exploiters lust for larger profit, leading to the exploiter planning larger scale endeavors in the future. The author, Patrick D. Smith (1984), suggests the idea that communities naturally grow in a hedonic cycle to crave more resources to fuel loftier endeavors that require even more resources from the environment, an idea that is also discussed by Aldo Leopold in the Land Ethic as wholly negative, and that is also part of my world view that is rather more optimistic.

Wilderness in its true state is lush, sleek, and channels water. It is because of its true natural state that is has the ability to generate billions of dollars into America’s recreational economy. One provident example, is the San Gabriel Wilderness in California. Now of course protecting this land has natural benefits,

Everyday people all over the world try to improve the qualities of their lives. Nonetheless, they forget that what they do can have severe harms and damages on the environment and other organisms. In the excerpt “A Fable for Tomorrow” from the book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson describes the disastrous and horrific effects of pesticides on the environment and animals of the town. In the essay “Our Animal Rites” by Anna Quindlen, she shows the inhumanity of animal hunting by human. Furthermore, she argues how human migration is destroying the natural habitats that belong to the animals. In the excerpt “Reading the River” from the autobiographical book Life on Mississippi, Mark Twain describes how he loses the ability to perceive the

By using Pathos, Carter makes a strong emotional argument for the preservation of the wildlife refuge. Carter first uses fear of loss to motivate his audience. Carter even says, “I was saddened to think of the tragedy that might occur if this great wilderness was consumed by a web of roads and pipelines… ” (Carter 4). Carter uses imagery and speaks of the tragedy of a world where the wildlife refuge was lost. However, Carter also makes an emotional argument for the promise of gain. Throughout the article Carter refers to the refuge in many ways such as a “special birthplace” (Carter 3), “America’s Serengeti” (Carter 3), and “America’s last truly great wilderness” (Carter 1). Jimmy Carter explains, “It would be a grand triumph for America if we can preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge… To leave this extraordinary land alone would be the greatest gift we can pass on to future generations.” Carter clearly aims to instill a sense that much will be gained emotionally by keeping the refuge

In “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments”, Thomas Hill explores the idea that those who would destroy natural environments may lack necessary human virtues. He lays out this idea through these claims:

Many people would find it easy to sympathize with the conservation of the natural, magnificent wilderness and all of its glory; and Subhankar Banerjee, the author of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, A Photographic Journey, uses that sympathy to gain the reader’s support in his claims. While his article does offer a very compassionate viewpoint with vivid imagery to capture the reader’s attention, it lacks strong logos arguments to back up his claims and falls victim to a few major logical fallacy points that injure his stance.

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss depicts a world ravaged by deforestation and suffering from other environmental crises. In the town of Thneedville, an aspiring capitalist begins to sell his new product and as a result of booming business, the cornerstone of his business pays the price. The trees, the only natural resource used in production, are harvested to the point of extinction. The lack of trees leads to soil erosion, air pollution, and species extinction. While this is a children’s tale and Dr. Seuss’s illustration may be quite extreme, it is a reality for future generations of our planet. Human involvement in ecosystems by clearing land for urban development, logging, and agriculture have all exacerbated the rate of decline in the region’s natural systems. The deforestation of rainforests for the cultivation of palm oil is causing the possible extinction of orangutans and exacerbating air quality issues in Indonesia.

This book illustrates the threatening reality of excessive resource consumption fueled by corporate greed and the impact it has on the natural world. Even though more than one issue is addressed, the effect on the environment stands out as the governing problem. The Lorax prophesizes his message, “ I speak for the trees, as the trees have no tongues”, throughout the book in order to defend his loyalty to the Truffula trees.

Hunting is what humans do daily in order to survive and it also keeps nature sustainable. But overhunting can hurt this balance and cause a chain of negative reactions that affect the entire planet. This has been an ongoing debate on whether hunting is sustainable or hurtful towards the environment. One can compare Aldo Leopold’s “Thinking Like a Mountain” and Rick Bass’ “Why I Hunt” to determine if hunting today is a safe practice. Aldo Leopold describes hunting as something dark and terrible. He describes it this way because he witnessed something within the wolf and that changed his mind about hunting. While Rick Bass opposes the idea. He believes hunting is a good thing for humans because it benefits the mind.

Many different effects of the economic sector manifest themselves negatively in the world, and especially in nature. One of which is because of human tendency to want control or to believe that humans are superior to nature, the relationship between humans and nature becomes a dominant versus submissive binary, with humans pushing nature into submission. In Gerald Barrax’s poem titled “To Waste at Trees,” this point about human control is referenced when Barrax says “But it’s when you don’t care about the world / That you begin owning and destroying it” (Barrax lines 5-6). The implication behind this quote is the lack of discretion by humans with how their action influence the world around them. It is like the discrepancies between humans and nature are created unintentionally by people and their creations. Corporate America’s greed and disregard for the natural world continually enforces the binary between nature’s lack of autonomy and the control that humans exact on it. Also, “owning” the land, and “owning” a piece of nature is

During his time, Aldo Leopold was a conservationist who believed in the longevity of the land and that we should protect it, even if we must protect the land from ourselves. While this was an unpopular opinion, realizing that the land and animals naturally work together in a symbiotic relationship to protect one another was very apparent to Leopold. He believed that humans should be doing our best to lessen our impact on the environment. Time has caught up with Leopold’s ideologies and it is time that our efforts and contributions to the earth did too.

Right from the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century, there has been a fierce debate concerning how economic growth or development affects the environment or ecological setup of a country. The debate has its basis on whether it would be recommendable for a nation to concentrate on growing its economy while at the same time hurting or harming its ecological system. Naturalists like Pinchot Gifford, John Muir, Love Canal and Cuyahoga County always argued in favor of environmental preservation as opposed to concentrating all efforts towards developing the economy (Olmes 154; Miller 150-51). This paper will, therefore, discuss the struggle between economics and ecology specifically looking at particular events across the Twentieth Century. It will also attempt to explain the factors involved in the pursuit for change on the way people and the administration perceived the environmental conservation as opposed to economic growth.