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How Did John Muir Influence The Environment

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JOhn Muir’s Influence in The early 20th Century To what extent did John Muir’s environmental philosophy in the late 19th and early 20th century influence Theodore Roosevelt’s environmental policies passed during his presidency? Table of Contents Background 2 John Muir 3 Theodore Roosevelt 8 The Meeting 10 Antiquities Act 12 Conclusion 14 Bibliography 15 Background It’s undeniable that there have been individuals throughout history who have valued nature. However, the United States public as a whole has been, for the most part, indifferent towards its protection and did not develop an appreciation for the environment until the late 19th and early 20th centuries (The Evolution of the Conservation Movement). Evidence for this change in paradigms can be seen in the policies passed under Theodore Roosevelt and took place alongside the progressive era when the US experienced a shift in attitude, leaning more towards reform in all aspects of society with the goal of creating a better quality …show more content…

He developed his love for the wilderness early on, on adventures with his friends and walks with his grandfather who encouraged his curiosity. In his early schooling, Muir continued to be taken with nature and he became almost obsessed with the lessons on natural history and the literature that involved animals at school. When he heard his family was moving to America in 1849, when he was only 11, John Muir was filled with joy (John Muir: A Brief Biography). He had heard of the vast wilderness in the New World all throughout his schooling and the idea of being able to experience it all firsthand made the long journey to America full of excitement. In his biography, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, he described a conversation he had with his grandfather right before he left for the New World about all the birds, gold, sugar, and other wonders he would encounter in his new home (Muir

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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.

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Naturalist John Burroughs once said of his friend Theodore Roosevelt, "Roosevelt was a many-sided man and every side was like an electric battery. Such versatility, such vitality, such thoroughness, such copiousness, have rarely been united in one man.” While many people know Roosevelt the war hero, Roosevelt the President, or Roosevelt the naturalist, his contributions as an author/historian shouldn’t take a back seat to T.R.’s numerous other accomplishments. In The Naval War of 1812, Roosevelt aims to craft the complete unbiased work on the naval combat between the United States of America and Great Britain from 1812-1815. When it was published in 1883 it became an instant sensation in the academic world.

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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.

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A mass body of people pointed out what they liked and disliked. Throughout history, one can clearly see change is made through citizen’s inputs that eventually makes an impact on the quality of life. During the Progressive Era, America was portrayed as the “best country” in the world. However, no one bothered to bring up the fact that one out of three people were starving to death or only six out of ten children were attending school due to financial instability in American households. The government was well aware of the poverty issues but they did not make an effort to help the people.

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Rachele Liba Professor Whitehead POSC 100 22 July 2016 Placing a Price on a Green Nation Having lived a nomadic lifestyle across the United States, I have had the opportunity to witness the wonders of our flourishing society and the everyday turmoils that we face. Rigorous innovation has helped Americans fulfill countless dreams, however with every gift there is a usually a price-tag or opportunity cost. Now in the midst of the general presidential election, platforms that represent our beliefs can undergo much needed reform to address the opportunity costs that were surpassed in the process of success. Among the various problems found in our society, a key movement that has raised necessary controversy has to do with environmental policy.

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I had the opportunity to go to Mexico and visit the Yucatan rainforest and this lead me to be able to explore nature and feel the peaceful impact it can have on someone 's life. Chris McCandless was determined to create a new life for himself and be the one to control his own destiny. “Chris changed his name, gave the entire balance of a twenty-four-thousand-dollar savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet…. His family had no idea where he was or what had become of him until his remains turned up in Alaska”. This quote is from Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild and shows how McCandless left everything from his old life in order to create a new life for himself.

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Our environment had been endangered of becoming unsafe, threatening, and even deadly. “The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with pollution. Our parks are overcrowded, our seashores overburdened. Green fields and dense forests are disappearing.” Johnson stresses that the health of people and environment is at risk because Americans have allowed for the destruction of nature to get out of hand, and causing both the Earth and human health at risk of becoming an ugly America, due to –as Johnson references- the “Ugly American” (“Great Society”).

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Wordsworth and Muir express their fascination with nature using imagery and mood. In “Calypso Borealis”, John Muir states that he finds himself “glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog and meadow heathworts, grasses, carices, ferns, mosses, liverworts displayed in boundless profusion” (Muir). The words “boundless profusion” appeals to the sense of sight and helps us imagine the scene and all the bountiful natural beauty of the place. The image shows Muir’s relationship with nature because it demonstrates his overwhelming, nearly spiritual, experience with nature. In the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”,

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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.

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Why I Went to the Woods by Henry David Thoreau is a piece of literature taken from the book Walden that discusses Thoreau’s desire to experience life and it's meaning by living by the most simple terms possible. Thoreau lived off the land, built his own home, hunted and fished his own food. Through these things, Thoreau experienced how life is lived without luxury and only with the raw basics. Although his passion for the natural world shows through his writing his goal is not to persuade others to follow in his footsteps by going out and living in nature. Thoreau wanted others to follow him by living their best life which would be achieved by following their passions and the things they enjoy.

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