Reflection #4- Nature

         After reading Polemic, Wildlife in American Culture, Easter's End and Fable for Tomorrow along with taking my ecological footprint quiz some strong emotions have risen in me. I feel almost angry at the way our world runs. I wish that earlier on as humans progressed that smarter decisions would have been made that took our environment's condition into consideration. Unless huge changes are made very quickly in the world we live in today, I fear that our environment is going to be destroyed before we have time to reverse the damage we have caused it. Hybrid cars and houses made from recylced materials need to become the most popular items on the market so that we can stop cutting down our forest and polluting our life source (air). This section of class had made me more aware of my bad habits and given me a passion to try harder to preserve our earth. Our environment is sacred and I feel is abused. She (mother earth) has always taken care of us and been there to provide us with what we need physically and spiritually. The environment really is a spiritual thing that needs to be nourished. Mother earth brings us back down to earth and makes us realize it's not all about us, she can make us realize the greater outside powers of this world. Roads, trash, and advanced technology need to stop entering and corrupting nature. Making nature comfortable is different than changing the entire meaning of spending time in nature by bringing your whole household's stuff everytime you enter it. Nature is wonderful, beautiful and special and deserves better treatment. I am going to start doing my part to make that happen.

Easter's End - Jared Diamon

          The general argument/point made by Jared Diamond is his work Easter’s End is that a perfectly healthy environment can be destroyed by overconsumption of resources and that if we (America) are not careful and make smarter decisions we will be destroyed just like the Polynesian community of Easter Island. More specifically, Diamond argues/suggests that we are destroying ourselves by overconsumption of all our resources. He writes, “Eventually Easters growing population was cutting the forest more rapidly than the forest was regenerating.”    (pg. 430) In this passage, Diamond is suggesting that the depletion of Easter Island’s resources was a slow process that gradually became worse with the growing population. It snuck up on them and then by time they realized it, it was too late, they had consumed too much and died because of it. In conclusion, it is Diamond’s belief that we are on a downhill spiral to destroying our own community by naively over consuming all of our own resources, just like the Polynesians on Easter Island did.

            In my view, Diamond is right because think about our gas prices, our weather, and our garbage problems; each year they keep getting worse because we are not making changes to live more proficiently and less wastefully. For example, three years ago when my brother started driving he could fill up the car that I drive now with gas for $35.00 dollars. It takes me a little more than $45.00 to completely fill the same tank now. Although Diamond might object me saying that I think it’s too late to change and save our earth, I maintain that unless everyone in the world were forced to make huge decreases in their resource use it is too late for any individual or small group to make a difference; our earth is doomed because of the way we choose to live and because of our stubbornness to change. Therefore, I conclude that Diamond is right in believing that our overconsumption of our resources is going to gradually and slowly destroy us.

Fable for Tomorrow - Rachel Carson

In Rachel Carson’s work Fable for Tomorrow she describes a small town in America. She talks about how lovely, wealthy, prosperous, and healthy this town is and pretty much makes it sound like the perfect place to live. I imagine it being out of a fairytale where everything is perfect and happy; a place where true love exists. Later on in her story, for no apparent reason a scourge crosses over the land. Everything dies: cattle, plants, crops, people, animals, the beauty, and the wonderful feeling the town brought about. Everyone that lived in the town thought an evil spell had been cast upon it but it turned out that everything died because of the people’s actions or the lack thereof.

           This fable made me extremely sad and feel hopeless. It made me realize how amazing our world could be if we treated it right, and how bad it is or potentially could get with the way we are treating it. I think we definitely take nature for granted and don’t give it anything back in return. Her argument/point is completely right. Our world as we know it could just disappear one day. Nature needs to be cherished and used to its full potential.

Hudson River School (Response)

          The Hudson River School (1825-1880) was the first coherent school of American art. The group of many painters from this school depicted nature of the Wild West as romantic and beautiful. These artists felt that the beauty of Nature could inspire good moral qualities and that it was an agent of spiritual and moral transformations. This school began in the 19^th century by Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand. It started small but became the most popular luminous and late romantic school of landscape paintings in the 19^th century. This school helped depict the good/peaceful side of nature and helped the Europeans diminish their fear towards it.

1^st Painting: The Hunter’s Return

Artist: Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

            Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, was born in England and then moved to America in 1818. He is best known for his allegorical paintings, but also did many paintings of the White Mountains like this one. Although painting romantic, amalgamative, grand, and enormous allegorical works such as the Voyage of Life and Course of Empire is what Cole preferred, he did many landscapes upon requests of patrons. His goal was to showcase the romantic side of American nature. He wanted to depict American nature as the “visible hand of God” but also to prove a point that nature is good and useable; it is not scary and needed to be avoided.

           More specifically in this work of art, The Hunter’s Return that Thomas painted in 1845, he is portraying nature as useful and homey. This piece of work I think reflects upon the ideas that America came from nature and showcases the Wild West perfectly. The men in this painting are on their way back from hunting, foraging, and scavenging.  They are living in the land, not just on the land and are obviously not fearful of it. It depicts the history of America and how we grew to what we are now; nature really is the visible hand of God.

2^nd Painting: Rainy Season in the Tropics

Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (1826 – 1900)

            Frederic Edwin Church, perhaps the best known representative of the Hudson River School, was born in 1826 in Hartford.  He was mastered/taught by the famous painter Thomas Cole at a young age and soon was said to be the student as having “the finest eye for drawing in the world.” He soon went global after opening a studio for himself with his beautiful landscape paintings. Church was a painter that focused very much on showing natural science in his work but he never failed to give each of his paintings a spiritual twist; probably something he learned from Thomas Cole.

           Specifically in this painting Rainy Season in the Tropics which he painted in 1866, like many of Church’s paintings is portraying the beauty and power of water. When I look at this painting, I see pure power and strength. It makes me realize how beautiful our country is and how resilient nature is. It always rebuilds itself when given time and nurturing. It reflects romanticism in a spiritual aspect. Waterfalls have always been a spiritual symbol and I think this painting makes the people who view it, think a little deeper and past this world.

 

3^rd Painting: Grand Canyon of the Yellow Stone

Artist: Thomas Moran (1837-1926)

            Thomas Moran was born in 1837 in Bolton, Lancashire. At age 16 he got his first job as a wood engraver and with this position is when we began to paint and draw seriously. He became an extremely good painter and was asked to go on many excursions to paint landscapes. In 1860 he was asked to come to West and paint Lake Superior. He enjoyed the American West so much that whenever he got the opportunity to come back he did. It was on one very special occasions that he got the opportunity to come paint the geyser’s, canyons, and hot springs of Yellow Stone park. He was a big part in making Yellow Stone National Park what it is today; he showed color and such power in his paintings that it drew many tourists’ specifically European tourists to visit the park.

            Specifically in this painting of Yellow Stone Grand Canyon of the Yellow Stone that Moran painted in 1893, Moran is showing the vividly awesome riches – scenic and material- of the West. This painting provides a spiritual and inspirational background/ reason for venturing to the West. Moran’s ability to showcase the beauty/ necessity of the mountain men’s myth’s in this painting considered him to be a national icon of the time.

          

          In conclusion to these wonderful artists that created a historical landscape school that went down in history, I would like to connect them and their works to the beautiful words of Henry D. Thoreau. He stated in his work Selections from WALDEN “Most men, even in this comparatively free country through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that it’s finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.” (pg. 350) I think that the works created at the Hudson River School helped men to pluck the finer fruits of life. These works show spirituality, the beauty of nature, our necessity for nature, and portray romanticism which are all finer fruits of life.

 Citations

http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~alexatn/finalfin.htm

http://www.medicinemangallery.com/bio/thomasmoran.lasso

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chur/hd_chur.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cole

http://whitemountainart.com/Biographies/bio_tc.htm

Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Park - Edward Abbey

          The general argument/point made by Edward Abbey in his work Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Park is that wilderness is a necessary part of civilization and that’s it’s national parks’ job to keep it intact and undiminished but people are making that impossible to do by trying to change the wilderness experience. More specifically, Abbey argues/suggests that wilderness is being destroyed by people’s desire for roadways, electricity, and comfort everywhere they go. He writes, most readiness, while generally sympathetic to this latter point of view, will feel as do the administrators of the National Park Service, that although wilderness is a fine thing, certain compromise and adjustments are necessary in the order to meet the ever-expanding demand for outdoor recreation (pg. 387). In this passage, Abbey is suggesting that the idea of outdoor recreation has changed; it can’t be sleeping under the stars, walking on foot, and living off the land, it now has to be motorhomes, restaurants, and constant modern entertainment. In conclusion, it is Abbey’s beliefs that no more roads should be built in National Parks because it is ruining the true meaning and opportunity of the wilderness.

           In my view, Abbey is right because National Parks and wilderness everywhere are getting destroyed by the convenience of roads and groups of people. For example, the parkway by my house, originally created for a quiet, clean, and peaceful place to be alone in nature and run or walk your dog is now, loud, always busy, and full of trash. Although Abbey might object to the idea of finding a happy medium between comfort and pure wilderness, I maintain that it’s possible to have comfort and a full wilderness experience with maybe a control of tourism and stricter wilderness laws. Therefore I conclude that Edward Abbey is right in wanting to keep wilderness, wilderness but he has too high expectations for everyone to want the same experience as him so a compromise needs to be made.

Wildlife in American Culture - Aldo Leopald

          The general argument/point made by Aldo Leopald in his work “Wildlife in American Culture” is that culture and the environment go hand in hand; one effects the other. More specifically, Leopald argues, suggests that our environment effects the way life is lived or in other words our culture; it may determine whether we wear clothes made out of buffalo hide, nor gator skin. He also argues/suggests the opposite which is that our culture can effect our environment; our culture at certain times may include more house building which would effect the forests’ tree supplies. He writes, “Wildlife has still value, now visible only to a few ecologists, but of potential importance to the whole human enterprise.” (pg. 375) In this passage Leopald is suggesting that environment effects culture and culture effects environment and that they have an irreplaceable and necessary connection. In conclusion, it’s Leopald’s belief that the environment has a great effect on the culture of the people around it and vice versa.

           In my view, Leopald is right because in history when no other resources were available, people had to live off the land/environment which would effect the type of lives they lived (their culture). For example, people today know how to hunt and enjoy hunting because their ancestors had to hunt in past times to survive when farming and the Industrial Revolution were not around yet. Therefore, I conclude my agreement with Aldo Leopald and believe that environment and culture go hand in hand and have great effects on each other.

Ecological Footprint/Reflection #3

          My ecological footprint states that if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need 5.64 earths to withstand our living habits. I found this crazy after taking the quiz because I always thought of myself as definitely not an environmentalist but someone that actually took consideration of the environment and the wear and tear it takes. This obviously proved me wrong and made me realize that some big changes in my life and others could be made to conserve energy and the earth's resources.
          Everyone on earth needs to start recycling anything and everything they can. Recycled products are great to use as building materials and take up 1/100 of the space. Besides recycling, we can try to just cut down on the products we use. Refill a water bottle many times before throwing it away or bring go green bags to the grocery store with you.
         Small things besides recycling could be done to help our earth not have to work so hard to provide for us. Plant and care for your own garden, change your lightbulbs to ones that conserve energy, un-plug appliances that are not in use, change your water faucets, and now you can even change your windows to windows that let more light in so lightbulbs do not have to be used so much.
         I honestly feel like there are so many things we as people can do to help our earth out and it's crazy to me that we aren't. I decided after we had our class discussion and I took this ecological footprint quiz to make a goal to use a waterbottle at least 3 times before throwing it away. I know that is small change in my life but I feel like I may be able to influence others and make a difference :)