Wilderness

Many books have been written about the wilderness and the wilderness experience. Literary works devoted to describing the very nature of the wilderness and living in the wilderness allow readers to experience, through the author’s perspective the challenges and the satisfaction one feels when living off the land. Which then allows the reader to develop a newfound or a deeper appreciation for the wilderness. These writings describe the continuous relationship between the wilderness and humanity, and provide some insight into human nature and our ability to survive even in the most severe environments. Indian Creek Chronicles and Desert Solitaire are books that transport the readers to a place not often experienced personally and into the…

brief overview of the historical foundation for the views on wilderness of the early pioneers of North America and how these views on wilderness have shaped American opinion on wilderness. The early American settlers’ view had a strong historical precedent. Early Humans’ values were geared toward survival so things that were useful to them were deemed “Good” and things that were a challenge to their survival were “Bad”. As time went on humans were able to control certain limited aspects of…

Evolving Perspective of Wilderness In the beginning, Judeo-Christian tradition shaped people’s ideas of wilderness. It was an area alien to man. They led man to believe that they could not survive in uninhabited land. People, at this time, believed that a drought and the resulting wilderness was brought upon by the Lord as a curse in order to show his displeasure. As stated in the Old Testament, “The ancient Hebrews regarded the wilderness as a cursed land and that they associated its forbidding…

A wilderness experience occur when one perceive phenomena in the wilderness. It is important to keep in mind that achieving a globally agreed-upon definition for wilderness is difficult, and may not even be entirely necessary. However, a common definition of wilderness is an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. It is an area essentially undisturbed by human activity together with its naturally developed life community. Wilderness leaves no place for human beings, save perhaps as…

Construction of nature and Rethinking Wilderness “The task of making a home in nature is what Wendell Berry has called “the forever unfinished lifework of our species” (Cronon, 87). Centuries ago humans lived among nature, hunting and gathering to survive. Yet the advent of agriculture pulled humans away from nature and gradually we isolated ourselves from the wilderness, only to return on occasion. From the capitalist-consumer culture to our urban centers, we have found solace in modern…

William Cronon’s essay entitled “The Trouble with Wilderness” is an intelligent and thoughtful work of environmental philosophy that addresses the relationship between nature and man while defining and contextualizing the idea of wilderness. Cronon argues that we must change the way that we think about wilderness. With this idea of man’s perspective of wilderness, Cronon goes on to describe the ways in which man has looked at wilderness throughout history. From a state of fear and intimidation,…

To suggest that wilderness cannot exist within the context of the Anthropocene epoch is to fundamentally misunderstand the definition of nature and wilderness. The Anthropocene does not imply that humans constitute a force of nature, but rather that human actions have enough global impact to affect Earth’s composition and ecosystem on the scale of geological time. This does not change the fact that wilderness, areas relatively untouched by humans and in relative natural state, cannot exist. The…

The trouble with wilderness is that it does not exist as we typically think of it. The idea of untouched, uninhabited, virgin lands, typically associated with America, and then later the American Frontier, did not exist because in order for it to exist it required the removal of Native Americans. We have, as Cronon calls it “exported” this same romanticized and sterilized concept of wilderness all over the globe in a form of “cultural imperialism”(Cronon, 13). Like in the film, In the Light of…

Wilderness is a highly idealized concept in today’s society – we simply put it on a pedestal and choose to admire it as we see fit. Separate from our everyday, civilized lives, nature and wilderness are distant and remote concepts. By approaching the natural realm in this sense, we simply detach ourselves from our origin, which leaves us to fantasize about the great outdoors as an escape from the artificial creations of our everyday life. This dualistic notion and the desire to escape our…

What argument are the authors of “The Last Wilderness Preserve” and “A New Land of Opportunity” making about how human behavior and actions impact Antarctica? Which author do you feel presents the stronger argument and why? The author of “The Last Wilderness Preserve” talks about why humans are not meant to visit Antarctica. According to the text, “In 1959, leaders from twelve nations signed the Antarctic Treaty, which forbids extensive human activity in Antarctica.” Because of this no one…