Island Civilization Response

“When does success in too great a dose produce failure?” Roderick Frazier Nash poses this question when discussing wilderness in this excerpt from “Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy on Earth in the Fourth Millennium.” This question came from Nash’s idea that humans are constantly praising success in technological advancement. However, this advancement is hurting our natural environment, which means we are not reaching success after all. Nash brings up the idea that wilderness was actually conceived to be evil and cursed in the time of the first European colonists. Of course, this means that preserving the environment was probably the last thing on their minds. In the twentieth century, a newfound preservation and appreciation for the wilderness came about in the United States; although, the idea was not to benefit the wilderness, but the people, instead. More recently, we have come to the conclusion that the concept of wilderness protection should not be about us at all. Instead, it should be to the benefit of the environment, which has been abused by humans that were hungry for control over our planet. In 1973, the phrase “deep ecology” first appeared.  This phrase represented the belief that every life form has the right to function normally in an ecosystem that is shared. Acts were passed to ensure that nonhuman species, even those that did not seem useful to the human species, had rights to live. This seemed encouraging, but humankind continued to damage the natural resources that survive in the wilderness. This brought scientists to think about the fact that a great extinction is possible, especially if food, water, and soil issues keep making headlines. Nash agrees that the natural world could end due to various different causes in the next thousand years. Because humans were so eager to expand, the ecosystem has been negatively impacted. Nash brings up his scenario for helping the ecosystem get back on track – island civilization. This would mean that population growth would have to go down to a quarter of what it currently is. It would also cause humans to take up less space, in order to better share with the other species that inhabit Earth. We would occupy small densely populated circles around the planet in order to inhabit as little space as possible. Fences, dams, telephone poles, and other parts of our lives today would be nonexistent in island civilization, with the help of technology. Nash believes that if we take drastic steps to change, the environment and the species that live here could benefit in great ways.

I strongly agree that we, as humans, need to take actions that will help improve our environment, for us as well as the other species that live among us. However, I do not see the island civilization scenario working out. I do not believe that people worldwide will be willing to take the necessary steps for it to work. Personally, I do not really like Nash’s concept of island civilization. It would require drastic changes that would cause our lives to do a complete turnaround. Of course, I realize that it would not happen immediately. I just feel that there are other ways to help preserve our planet that would require less of a direct change to our lifestyle. I also feel that people today are more willing to conserve, preserve, and change for the benefit of our wilderness than they ever have been. There are numerous fuel efficient cars that were not readily available a few years ago. There are also a variety of “green” products. These can range from cleaning products to handbags. This helps keep our environment clean by recycling and reusing materials that we could just throw away to be put into a landfill. I realize that this does not directly help the fact that we are taking up too much space on the earth. I do think that if even more people are willing to help save the planet, and more directly, our wilderness, we can put our heads together and think of an idea that could quite possibly cause a faster, but less drastic change than Nash’s idea of island civilization. An individual can start this process and make a difference, but ultimately I believe that everyone (or at least the vast majority of the human population) must be willing to work together to impact the environment in the best possible way.