Ecotopia Big Wood Summary

Since the early 20th century the environmentalism movement has migrated from the struggles of consumers versus producers, or saving the planet as a whole as shown by Donald Worster in Nature’s Economy to a more socio-economic view based on urban growth and industrial health. Robert Gottlieb’s book Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement argues that as society goes so too does the environmental movement. As the emphasis on working environments and commercial goods we buy including food changes so too does the environmental movements. It did not matter whether it was large politically prominent environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club or the Audubon Societies or any other numbers of local grassroots

that have been compelled to care for their forests by systematic managing. He also says that, “In their natural condition, or under wise management, keeping out destructive sheep, preventing fires, selecting the trees that should be cut for lumber, and preserving the young ones, these forests would be a never failing fountain of wealth and beauty” (360). We can clearly notice that nature is important to him. His writings moved presidents, and congressmen, “Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed—chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could get out of their bark hides……-God has cared for these trees…but he can not save them from fools – only Uncle Sam can do that.”

This essay depicts a relationship between society and nature, referring to the woods. Society is changing rather quickly which prevents an individual from truly seeing everything around them. It has destroyed nature and the clarity that the woods provide. Berry notices how people do not see where they are anymore. Many are going through life never actually looking to see what is around them or observing closer. He goes into the woods and immerse himself in nature. As Berry states, “The faster

The affect of environmental issues occur everyday and in particular deforestation is becoming a highly ranked subject. From animals to the human race, the alacrity of trees that are cut down affects every individual in a variety of ways. Not only do people need to help the planet but they need to help themselves and further generations to come, such as children and grandchildren because these natural resources that are being taken away from society are as well shaping the future. For comprehensible reasons, forests use to make up the world, until man made creatures started to destroy and destruct the most important supply to human kind which are trees. Trees are crucial to every living entity for the reason of providing oxygen to all.

John Muir, a brilliant Transcendentalist, has written hundreds of enlightening environmental essay to emphasize the adamant need to save these sacred kings of the forests, the Redwoods. Within Muir’s vivid and emotional entries, specifically “Save the Redwoods”, John utilizes rhetorical devices such as personification, analogy, and Religious allusion in order to express the vital need to save the trees.

to switch by making regulations more strict as well as a greater number of them

As you can clearly see the early Native Americans culture regarding the surrounding ecosystem would probably horrify many ecologists upon first look, but perhaps if we look deeper we can learn a truer meaning to the idea of environmentalism. If we plan to sustain the resources of the earth for our children we must find a balance and end the selfish taking of resources. We can learn much from this

Aldo Leopold is on the forefather of modern environmentalism. His book, A Sand County Almanac, is based on the notion of viewing land as a community and as a commodity. In the chapter “The Land Ethic”, Leopold invokes a rethinking of our relationships to our world and is based on the principle that ethics are “a process in ecological evolution” (238). Leopold describes the stages of ethic evolving and explains that the rules for socializing were originally defined for human beings. These rules are expanded upon in the next stage of “Ethical Sequence” (237-238), describing how humans interact toward their community. The third stage is the ethics between humans and the land. Upon analyzing “The Land Ethic” I have come to the conclusion that in order to have respect and ethic for land, or anything, one must make a personal connection.

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise,” said by none other, Aldo Leopold. In A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, an American environmentalist, brought a new idea to the environmentalist’s table: “land ethic.” His idea of a land ethic is a moral responsibility of humans to the natural Earth. Leopold’s idea has been discussed since the publication by a wide variety of people, from the public to scholars. Since

McKibben attempts to sway the reader through comparisons of the rain forest to important values even though we are not sure about the validity of these comparisons. The state only has to clear 1% of the rain forest, which spreads out into “a honeycomb of roads, corridors, and steam pipes,” says Russell Ruderman, a part of the Big Island Rainforest Action Group. Ruderman says that “the plants aren’t used to foreign competition,” but we are not told that he has the qualifications to make these statements. He compares this “honeycomb” to weeds, a negative connotation, which pervade the heart of the forest. Then McKibben compares that to the negative effect on nine or ten sticks of butter on veins and arteries. This pathos appeals to the reader because health is very important. But there is really no way of truly knowing that one of these circumstances is as destructive as the other because they are extremely different. Also, the 1% of the “honeycomb” that is invading the forest is much smaller compared to the excess butter to the 1% of veins and arteries. Since it is too complex to question whether the comparison is valid, McKibben convinces the audience to accept that clearing 1% of the forest is harmful.

Serving as the number one source of our plastic use, companies opt for plastic containers because it's easy, feasible, and convenient. Food packaging alone makes up for 30-40% of landfills with much of that plastic being carried into the oceans. Going off of this, a new concept that's quickly becoming popular are package free grocery stores. These cost- effective grocery stores have everything you could possible need in bulk form and consumers bring glass or reusable containers, or cloth bags and fill them with the food they need. First popping up in cities like Berlin, Vienna, and Barcelona, many are finding this a more sustainable and eco-friendly option resulting in these sort of grocery stores quickly spreading across the ocean, with the first one in the United States expected to open in Brooklyn, New York. Business operators are extremely optimistic that this could serve a very impactful solution to getting rid of unnecessary plastic. (Che Jenny).

Each year there is an increase in demands for plastic bags, and therefore more are shipped, creating further environmental pollution concerns. This increase in demand has lead to the phenomenal upsurge in the use and misuse of plastic bags globally, both in developed and developing countries. Statistics show that 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags are produced per annum, whereby North America and Western Europe account for nearly 80% (Geographical, 2005; Reusable Bags, 2005). Cheeseman (2007) states that approximately “380 billion plastic shopping bags are used in the United States annually”; in turn, only 0.6% of this is recycled.

The mixed wood plain is the best Eco zone to live in. This eco zone, is spreading across the south western Ontario , parts of central and north eastern Ontario, is touching the St.Lawrence river across sourthen part of Qubec.

The issue of Deforestation has been high on the global environmental agenda for many years, and remains a serious problem today. In the tropics and many other parts of the world, nations continue to lose the valuable biodiversity, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation that natural forests provide. Christianity can only address this matter by continuing to combine an acceptance of the command to people to ‘multiply and replenish the earth’ (Genesis 1:28) with a balancing injunction to act as stewards of the environment. Charities such as Christian Ecology Link and World Vision work to increase awareness of the current ecological crisis and encourage adherents to live sustainably and make ‘green’ consumption choices.

White’s thesis in The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis states that in order to confront the expanding environmental crises, humans must begin to analyze and alter their treatment and attitudes towards nature. The slow destruction of the environment derives from the Western scientific and technological advancements made since the Medieval time period. “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them” (RON p.7). Technology and science alone will not be able to save humans until we adjust the way of thinking and suppress the old ideas of humans power above nature. Instead, we need to learn how to think of ourselves as being