The Changing State of Nature

While I found all of Cronan's “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” interesting, the last few pages especially interested me. The last few pages examine the dualism between our inherent existence in nature and our definition of nature, which entails the absence of people. I believe that Cronan does a masterful job of denying the conception that only far-flung, magnificent places should be considered wilderness, and instead advocating people should consider everything around them as nature. To this end, I agree, nature is much more than towering mountains, waterfalls and rivers.

A 'tree in the garden' is still natural according to Cronan.

However, I think Cronan sometimes treats nature as static, rather than an ever changing, omnipotent force. He talks quite excessively about “The tree in the garden” compared to “the tree in an ancient forest”. To me, nature is as much the wind and the waves as the air and water itself. The truly breathtaking aspect of nature to me is not merely that it exists, but that it is alive in a sense. For the many ways in which humanity has enslaved nature to itself by using it to provide electricity, building materials and exploiting resources, nature itself has pushed back. Most notably by the threat that global warming has on civilization, but also through natural disasters that humans are powerless to protect themselves from, let alone control. (link to 2 degrees celsius)

A hurricane viewed from space.

Although the wilderness may no longer be as untamed and dangerous as centuries ago, nature is still as destruction a force as any on the planet.  Additionally, though we often joke about it, the unpredictability of nature is remarkable; we can hardly predict the temperature correctly, let alone natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. The bottom of the ocean is more of a mystery to us than the cosmos because of the limitations that nature puts upon us. I find it incredible that 6 miles down to the bottom of the ocean is much more difficult to achieve than the millions to mars or other planets. The absolutely immensity of the oceans prevented us from sending a manned sub to the bottom of the floor for over fifty years until James Cameron returned this year. The pictures and video clips from his trip are eerie; Cameron himself said he felt like he “had gone to another planet”.

Fundamentally, I agree with Cronan that nature is more than just the national parks of old, like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite. But while Cronan seems to ask us to appreciate nature both large and small, I cannot help be awed and amazed by the absolute immensity and power it possesses. The very idea that we get to live and interact daily with the presence such a mighty, inconceivably strong, yet breathtakingly beautiful force awes me.