Roderick Nash: Difference between revisions

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== ''Wilderness and the American Mind'' ==

Nash's study in this book<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3PJZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=20oNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4335,743719&dq=roderick-nash+raft&hl=en|title=Parks Subject of New Special|date=March 7, 1981|work=[[Waycross Journal-Herald]]|page=P5|accessdate=14 August 2011}}</ref> concerns the attitude of Americans' toward the idea of wilderness. He discusses the different attitudes that humansAmerican's have had toward nature. Whilesince [[wilderness]]colonization –and inthe achanging strictlyuses physicaland sense – has provided for the massdefinitions of the American economy, 'wilderness'in asthat acontext. philosophicalSpecifically, conceptNash hasdescribes providedthe Americaevolution somethingof toAmerican rallywilderness forconception andthrough againstTranscendentalism, toPrimitivism, harness andPreservationism, to allow to beConservationism.<ref name="untrammeled".Wilderness and Whilethe wildernessAmerican hasMind, alwaysNash had1973" a love/hate relationship with civilization,> Nash states that if wilderness is to survive, we must, paradoxically, manage wilderness – at the very least, our behavior towards the wilderness must be managed.

== Personal Philosophy ==

Nash presents America's anthropocentric view as the main enemy to all wilderness preservation. He argues that an ecocentric view is ideal and may work in the long run, but perhaps the preservation of nature and wilderness for the sake of holding resources out for the preservation of our own species would be more salient. Yet, even this strategy is hard for people to grasp, because it requires us to reach outside the present and look to the future. Still, Nash suggests that maybe the simple preservation of the environment for the sake of our own generation's recreation and health (oxygen sinks, etc.) could provide the impetus to slow some profiteering.

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Nash also talks of how wilderness teaches us the value of humility. The problem is that humanity does not want to be humbled. Humans are a proud species who will do anything to avoid being humbled. To this end, we have ripped the wildness from the wilderness and removed all that causes any threat to our existence.

Nash, who retired to Santa Barbara, California, after a 30-year career as a professor of history and environmental studies, believes that humankind has two choices in the next 1,000 years. We can "trash the planet into a wasteland" or adopt a plan to distill the world's population in 500 "islands" while allowing wilderness to flourish around us.

== Bibliography ==