John Muir, a naturalist and preservation pioneer of nature took an ethical stand for land ethics when he shared his thoughts that all living things are equally important parts of the land, and animals and plants have as much right to live and survive as people do. In the 1600’s when Europeans began to settle in North America, there were 1037 million acres of forestland. Today, a little over 700 million acres in the United States is forestland—only thanks to preservation laws. In the 1800’s, that number of tress and forests decreased tremendously because expansion and progression recklessly exploited natural resources by clear-cutting forest to use wood for fuel and building supplies.
This young man is also an example of how many people need to fall in love with nature again. He was so captivated by scenic views, terrain, and wildlife and that love undoubtedly struck a chord in any across the population. Many mountaineers say that the happiest moments in their lives are when they are standing at the top of a mountain that had never been climbed. Christopher McCandless had countless “top of the mountain moments” and thanks to him a whole generation longs for meaningful relationships not just with people but also with beautiful
Theodore Roosevelt’s most daring actions arose in the area of reservation of natural resources; his passion for nature was a result of his frail health as a boy. His childhood was plagued by suffering from severe asthma and weak eyesight, which followed him throughout adulthood as well. Roosevelt became an ostensibly passionate and enthusiastic outdoorsman. During the time which he grieved the loss of both his wife and mother, he took a leave from politics to spend two years on a cattle ranch in the badlands of the Dakota Territory; it came to be apparent to Theodore the environmental damage to the West and its wildlife. There, he became an unmistakably concerned advocate for preserving wilderness: a preservationist.
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.” (Abbey) These words, written by Edward Abbey in 1982, resonate the ideas proposed by John Muir nearly a century prior. While both Muir and Abbey both appreciate the natural beauty found in the American Southwest, only Abbey recognized the threat of human intervention on the preservation of the natural beauty of these wilderness areas. In Explorations in the Great Tuolumne Cañon, Muir describes the area that would later become Yosemite National Park in great loving detail.
President Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was known for his love of nature. This was conveyed most strongly in his speeches, such as “Conservation as a National Duty”, in which he advocated for the preservation of natural resources in the interests of the nation and its people. In this speech as well as others he gave during his term as President, he stressed that conservation did not just pertain to preserving natural resources or deferring their exhaustion; rather, it was closely intertwined with the patriotic duty of ensuring that the nation would be able to provide for future generations, and was second only to the “great fundamental questions of morality”. One such example of how Roosevelt connected conservation with morality is found in his “The New Nationalism” speech, given in Osawatomie, Kansas in 1910. Here, he compares the way he believes the nation must behave in terms of conservation to the manner in which a farmer acts in reference to his children and the land that provides for them.
John Muir has influenced the philanthropic sector in several ways. As discussed above, his numerous articles and books brought paramount attention to the early conservation kineticism. His inditements not only incentivized people to visit the Sierras, but withal enlightened his readers on the innate value of nature. By setting aside and conserving the environment for future generations, Muir believed, many could and would benefit from its riches for years to come. Once nature has been ravaged, it is very arduous to reconstitute its intrinsic value and comeliness.
John Muir, an American naturalist and writer John Muir, an American naturalist and write said,"Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way. "People can improve their lives through observing and interacting with animals. People's lives are improved when they interact with animals by making them healthier, also by making new best freinds, and happier. People are healthier when they own pets. In Temple Grandin, "She spended most of her day riding horses and cleaning the barn.
Theodore Roosevelt: “Conservation As A National Duty” introduces the problem of the lack of natural resources, and how are we going to fix the problem for future generations? Roosevelt makes connection between conservation and progress,patriotism,and morality of the American people by putting different people since or point of view of other people and himself to not waste our natural resources. He uses other people 's point of view by asking and using other people 's feeling about the crisis that they are in the middle of right now. (Stated in paragraph 3) “so vital is this question,that for the first time in our history the chief executive officers of the states separately,and of the states together forming the nations,have have met to consider.
While reading this story, I found myself daydreaming about being in a forest during a windstorm. It would be very breathtaking to someday go into the wilderness and experience something like John Muir experienced. Some may think that it is a very intense reading, but to me, it was such a relaxing story. I learned an important thing from this reading; I found out that even though the author's purpose was to entertain his audience, he proved that what may seem like a storm to someone, one can always find the bright side to everything. He was in the forest during a fierce storm, and instead of being worried about how he was going to get out of there, he chose to stay and look at the bright side.
In his 1995 essay “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon declares that “the time has come to rethink wilderness” (69). From the practice of agriculture to masculine frontier fantasies, Cronon argues that Americans have historically defined wilderness as an “island,” separate from their polluted urban industrial homes (69). He traces the idea of wilderness throughout American history, asserting that the idea of untouched, pristine wilderness is a harmful fantasy. By idealizing wilderness from a distance, he argues that people justify the destruction of less sublime landscapes and aggravate environmental conflict.
From these readings I have found that John Muir and Henry David Thoreau have many of the same notions about nature and the American frontier. Both viewed nature as a defined space, completely separated from civil society, a place in which “a man can be a man.” For Muir it seemed that nature was very much a sacred space and loved to idealize nature as a sort of heaven on earth. I think one of the biggest things I realized through these readings is that Muir and Thoreau both emphasized the difference, physically and mentally, between nature and urbanization. It is this idea that Americans now live on, I believe that people now think of nature and urban areas as entirely separate entities and in doing so, make nature into a sort of place to visit but never stay.
Mountains Made Alive: Native American Relationships with Sacred Land is an analytical article written by Emily Cousins. As the title suggests, the article discusses the relationship between Native Americans and the land, but it also delves into the relationship that non-Native Americans have with the land. The article begins with a story that is essentially about an American woman who camped on a sacred land for superficial reasons. She didn’t fully understand the significance of the spot she had chosen until she spoke to her Native American friend. The article continues to point out that non-Natives view the land simply as property, while Native Americans view the land as a living, breathing counterpart.
The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.
He also explained that just as the deers are afraid of the wolves , so are the mountains afraid of the deer and the other species with the fear of losing its vegetation. For this he has phrased that “The wilderness we hunt is the salvation of the world” which means that that it must not be destroyed. His main point here is that only the land can understand the true significance of an individual who is playing its role in the ecosystem. This is story that tells us the importance of very living species in nature and our eco system. If anything or any specie is absent, then there is a high probability of imbalance in eco system.
