Island Civilization

Rachel Leonard

Summary on Island Civilization

Dr. Taylor

19 August 2012

     Island Civilization, by Roderick Nash, begins by listing quotes that made me think about my place on earth as a species. My favorite quote out of the ones listed is the one by Wallace Stegner. I had never thought about how we are the most dangerous species but also the only species that will try to save something before it is destroyed. The author then begins talking about millenniums. I found it very interesting that he points out how as a society we never celebrated the first millennium ending, but we made the second millennium a huge deal. Next, the Nash states the mission of the essay. He asks the reader to stretch his or her mind and try to imagine what the future will be like at the beginning of the next millennium, a thousand years from now. That’s such a crazy question to think about and at this point in the essay I am excited to see what his response to that question will be.

     Roderick Nash gives a detailed history of the wilderness. He talks about the literature back round involving the wilderness, and he also explains the rationale of the early wilderness movement. I am slightly familiar with this subject because we read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer my junior year of high school. It is a novel about a man who is so obsessed with the wilderness that he hikes up to Alaska just to live in the wild with no contact with civilization. The main character from Into the Wild loves authors like Henry David Thoreau and Jack London, who Roderick Nash also talks about in the essay. After Nash explains the back round of the wilderness he begins to explain how society started to change their opinion on the wilderness and wanted to start conserving it.

     The Wilderness Movement of 1964 is mentioned in the essay, but Nash does not define what it is. Out of curiosity, I looked up the definition and found out that the wilderness movement gave the legal definition of what a wilderness is in the United States. Nash mentions that the Wilderness Movement of 1964 was formed to benefit the people. On the contrast, Nash brings up the new wilderness act that was formed within the last fifty years. The difference between the two is that the new act is formed to benefit the animals and the nature; not the people. I thought it was clever he called preserving the wilderness “planetary modesty.”  After Nash talks about the dangers and destruction that can be done to the wilderness from society he begins his proposal for “Island Civilization.” His fact on how much of the world is legally protected as a wilderness area is mind blowing!

      Nash then explains his theories for how the natural world could end. Theory number one is the wasteland theory where trash and other waste could pollute the earth to the point of it not being able to survive. The second theory is the garden theory. It basically means that the earth is like a garden and we would run out of room to plant in the garden. We would basically make it so that wilderness other than what is absolutely necessary exists. The third theory, future primitive, really shocked me. Nash explains that this theory means that civilization would go back to primitive times and use the hunting and gathering technique. I thought that was an absolutely crazy thought! I could not fathom going back to the primitive time era.  Lastly, the fourth theory is called the Island Civilization theory. Nash claims this is more of a dream than a theory. He then continues on to explain that in this theory the world would cluster on a planetary level. I thought it was a very interesting theory, well dream if you go by Nash’s words. However, the thought of having no human and being dictated by technology is quite frightening. As he goes deeper and deeper into details about Island Civilization I could not imagine living in that type of environment. Not having any thing but nature is so crazy to even picture in your head. In conclusion, Nash really got me thinking about what things could possibly turn out to be. However, I would rather not live in Island Civilization.