Anne Steed
Dr. Taylor
English 101
12 January 2012
In
“Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in
the Fourth Millennium" by Rodrick Frazier Nash, Nash talks about how
humans are destroying nature. He believes that humans have developed too far
into nature and are no longer taking care of the earth. In the beginning of
time, God made the earth and the nature was a big part of the earth. It was
beautiful and untouched, until Adam and Eve ate the apple, and from here, the
world started changing their idea of integrating with nature. As time as
progressed, we have torn down trees and come into nature, in order to build
houses, pave streets, polluted the air, etc. Nash says that we did this because
we are more concerned about ourselves than we are about nature and the
wilderness. He believes that our changing of the earth to suit our wants and
needs is hurting the natural wilderness and what was there from the beginning.
Slowly, nature is disappearing and if we keep doing what we are doing now, it
will eventually completely disappear. Nash presents four ideas of how we can
start changing the way we live to help gain back the wilderness and nature. He
believes that nature should have its own rights, just like we have our own.
His last proposal is called “Island
Civilization” where humans are all over the earth, but they live in groups of
people that are in 100-mile circles. The spaces between these 100-mile circles
are to be left to wilderness, where it can be natural and unharmed. People are
allowed to go into these areas of nature, but they have to live like the
wilderness. He calls this plan “the dream” because he really feels like this
would return nature to how it used to be. He thinks that everyone would be happy
with this because everyone and everything would be given liberty.
I think Nash presents a good
argument. I think that nature is disappearing and people are going over certain
boundaries that are hurting nature. I have seen pictures of my parents’ houses
when they were little, and it is amazing how much things have changed over a
small period of time. Overtime, I have slowly watched the wilderness disappear
in my hometown. I remember when there were forests that covered most of the
land near my house, and now, it is about the opposite. I think it is sad seeing
nature disappear because of buildings, streets, or homes taking their places. I
think the wilderness and nature are important because it is what God created
and it is home to many species. Although I think Nash presents a lot of good
ideas, I do not think they are realistic. I think Nash knows that his ideas are
not the easiest to achieve because the world is so big and not many people
would ever commit to one of his ideas. As the world is getting bigger and the
amount of people is getting larger, nature is going to keep being destroyed and
disappearing. I wish that Nash’s plan to preserve and to help nature would
work, but I believe that the world is going to continue getting worse. It would
be extremely hard to ask such a large task to all the people in the world.
There are people today that are trying to save the environment by asking people
to do small and easy tasks. I think asking people to do simpler and easier
things to help nature are more realistic and maybe overtime, people will be
more willing to do larger tasks.
