Island Civilization

            The essay written by Roderick Frazier Nash entitled, “Island Civilization”, captivated my attention and opened my eyes to the reality of the mistreatment of humans to the planet.  One of Nash’s main points was that while humans normally see the decrease in forests as an increase in shopping centers and highways, what they don’t see is the decrease in land to sustain civilization.  Nash gives a brief history of the early European citizens and they’re mindsets on land expansion.  For example, because the early citizens were carrying a bias attached to the Bible, and the Bible classified ‘wilderness’ as the land that God cursed, the first colonists were not concerned with preserving forbidden forests.  Derived from that mentality, the new colonists created new tools of transformation such as axes, dams, and freeways that left the wilderness in strewn leftovers.

            As expansion continued, Americans began to worry as to whether or not progress had gone too far.  When the 1890 United States Census stated that there was no longer any frontier, that statement was a reality check for Americans who then began to realize the importance of wilderness preservation and civilization.  While the beginning movements were based on the “ideas of wilderness as a church” and “a stimulant to a unique art and literature and a psychological aid”, the more recent arguments centered around the idea that the conservation of nature was not about us, but rather about the wilderness that we had been controlling since the beginning of civilization. 

            Food chains and ecosystems were the first scientific reasons that led ecologists to believe that nature was a community that mankind belonged to, not owned.  Nature began being compared to blacks, natives, and women as an oppressed minority in extreme cases.  There is only two percent of the contiguous forty-eight states that is wild legally, which sadly equals the amount of paved roads.  Because of the decrease in biodiversity amounts, many biologists were led to believe that there may be a Sixth Great Extinction approaching.      

            After giving a summary of the history of natures’ declination, Nash begins to break down the possible futures of the Earth and human civilization.  The first scenario entitled, “wasteland scenario”, describes a world littered and consumed with pollution.  “Garden scenario” describes an Earth with no diversity, clean water running through streams and far and wide grain fields; however, the waters would have low bio diversification.  The third scenario, “Future primitive”, would resume ancient living styles such as hunting for food and make shifting shelters and clothing.  The final and favorite scenario of Nash goes by the name of “Island Civilization”.  Island civilization would build better tools that would create peace, not war; also, there would not be any civilization with nature.  Nash describes the islands as a way to scale back from lavish living and equalize humans and their impact.

            Reading Nash’s article was definitely an eye opener for me, because I had never really thought about the future of the Earth past fifty years or so.  Thinking about the distant future of over a thousand years really opens up possibilities of bettering the Earth’s current economic and wild life problems.  I agreed with Nash’s point that we should not dismiss all of the technological progress that has been made thus far, but rather to use it responsibly.  With all of the technology being created, and those behind it, we should be starting to plan a way to reverse the upward rates of population grown and the downward rates of living space remaining.  I do feel that humans have too many amenities that could be scaled down and altered to not be so wasteful to the planet.  Nash made a very impacting point when he asked the question of whether or not society will make the appropriate changes deliberately or desperately.  If society does not go ahead and begin preparation for the upcoming decades, I fear for future civilization and the slowly dwindling natural resources left.