The Trouble With Wilderness By Norton 533

William Cronan argues that Bill McKibben's view of nature and wilderness are flawed. In The End of Nature, Bill McKibben writes about the environmental problems plaguing the Earth today. In his view, humans today are controlling the atmosphere around them more than ever before. Our ancestors used to live in an environment which they could easily predict. Seasons came at the right time, winters were cold and summers were hot. Now, because of global warming, that predictability has all but disappeared. The climate has become erratic and violent. It is this point that Bill McKibben tries to get across; the idea that the nature we perceive in our minds will be gone forever. Nowhere does McKibben imply that humans should be considered to be separate from nature. In fact, most of the time, McKibben's arguments seem similar to that of William Cronan's. They both agree, for example, that we are currently changing the earth more than ever before and that we are losing the tenuous understanding that we had of the earth. They agree that we must take action, for the Earth

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 wilderness can be used to measure against the man made world, a “scientific yardstick.” Throughout the entire piece he is arguing that the importance is not what we can actually see or touch, but what we think of and

Nature is the playground for every human. It is essential that we include nature in our lives; it keeps us on our correct path. However, if we dismiss ourselves from nature, we begin to stray from our correct path. We become engulfed in the distractions from the modern world . The only approach to appropriate this quandary is to break our pervicacious ways and return to peaceful serenity known as nature.

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.

Through removal and technology, humans have started to become isolated from the wilderness and the nature around them. This view distinctly contrasts with Thoreau’s perspective. “Though he [Thoreau] never put humans on the same moral level as animals or trees, for example, he does see them all linked as the expression of Spirit, which may only be described in terms of natural laws and unified fluid processes. The self is both humbled and empowered in its cosmic perspective,” states Ann Woodlief. The technologies that distract and consume us, and separate us from the natural world are apparent. Many people and children ins cities have seen little to no natural-grown things such as grass and trees. Even these things are often domesticated and tamed. Many people who have never been to a National Park or gone hiking through the wilderness do not understand its unruly, unforgiving, wild nature. These aspects, thought terrifying to many, are much of why the wilderness is so beautiful and striking to the human heart. “Thoreau builds a critique of American culture upon his conviction that ‘the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality,’” pronounces Rick Furtak, quoting Thoreau’s Life

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,

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.

Many find nature to be beautiful and captivating, but others take it to the extreme and inhibit themselves to live on its contents. Living off the land can be temperamental while also being critical to one’s survival. Chris McCandless, according to researchers, can easily be comparable to the similar situations of John Waterman, Carl McCunn, and Everett Ruess. All of these men had one goal: To seek out a greater purpose in nature. However, complications and puzzling disappearances brought them to their fate. Jon Krakauer provides examples of men analogous to McCandless’ experience to distinguish how crucial it is when someone decides to make a delirious decision to abandon their former life for a new one.

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.

Significant changes occurred in the North American landscape as a result of European settlers. Many of these changes were due to the fundamental differences in which the land was viewed, and thereby treated, by the Native Americans versus the incoming European settlers. Although both groups made significant impacts on their surroundings, the novel Changes in the Land argues that the actions of those inhabiting the English colonies caused much more dramatic and long-lasting alterations. The author of Changes in the Land, William Cronon, attempted to dispel the myth of the first English settlers stumbling upon “virgin land.”

In his book, Last Child in the Woods (2008), Richard Louv illustrates his distaste for the widening divide between man and nature by his use of exemplification, narration and hypophora. Louv’s purpose for writing this book is to inform the audience that mankind should change its ways and move towards a lifestyle that is more appreciative of its surroundings. Louv uses a frustrated tone to invoke the feeling of guilt within the reader because they are responsible for making humanity unappreciative of nature.

Edward Abbey, in the passage “The Great American Desert” from his book “The Journey Home”(1977), asserts that the desert is a terrible place but should still be benefited from because of its solitary nature. He portrays the desert as a horrific place that no one would like to be in. He then describes the desert as a quiet place to be enjoyed. His audience includes environmentalists and those who love nature.

Nature and wilderness were very important ideas to some extant for St. John de Crevecoeur and Ralph Waldo Emerson, each had their own opinions and ideas that contrasted against each other and were somewhat similar to each other. Emerson who valued it and looked at the nature as something to proud of had used it many times in his works as examples and that we are part of nature as well and make whatever choices from it as it can from us. While Crevecoeur believes that in every land it has its own form of culture as it does its own kind of nature, and describes how the land and nature was then and how it will be giving details of it in his pieces of work. How they use and see nature is described equally important in both their works “the American Scholar” and “What is an American” but shows how different their views really are in them.

In North America, the classic voice of the colonizing person’s connectedness to nature and a has been the romantic individualist writing of wilderness.