Human Control Of Nature Essay, Research Paper
Human Control of Nature
Nature has been around since the beginning of all time. Nature has even been here since long before the dinosaurs. People have been brought up and have lived off of nature and its nourishments. Nature is a wonderful yet dangerous thing. It can be as gentle as a breeze on a warm summer day or as deadly and ferocious as a violent hurricane in a populated city. Although man has lived through many tragic and deadly natural disasters, man has always been trying to grasp a hold of and capture a victory over anything that is disturbing.
Once a philosopher named Charles Darwin described nature as, Survival of the fittest. Darwin was describing the natural evolution and how nature is always in control. But, Darwin was not aware of the future capabilities that man will obtain. Humans, because of their unique abilities, control nature rather than are controlled by nature due to new technology, demand for space, and capitalism.
With new technologies in the twenty first century, humans are able to control nature. Whether the dominance comes from the ability to act without concern for nature, or to build on an endangered animal s habitat; human s new technologies are above nature. The natural world in the 20th century is changing dramatically. In the article Letter to President Pierce, 1855 Chief Seattle talks about the white man and the damage he has done to the land without concern for it. The cities are full of technology in place of natural items. Seattle writes, There is no quiet place on the white man s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect s wings (Seattle). Seattle s argument is deep and powerful in regards to the white man controlling nature and not understanding the spirit of the land. People, through technology such as building large buildings and large towns are controlling the environment with no concern for the land they destroy.
With the millions of inhabitants upon the planet, the demand for space grows bigger, taking over the free natural space that remains uncontrolled. Humans have been demanding space for centuries. Similarly to when people moved west for more elbowroom during the growth of the thirteen colonies back in the 1800 s. Demanding space is almost a natural evolution. Barbara Kingsolver wrote, High Tide in Tucson which is about a lady who brought back a hermit crab, by accident, from her trip to the Caribbean. This crab had no choice but to be controlled since humans are the most superior animals on the planet. Kingsolver wrote about how the lady took control of the crab, which can also be seen as a metaphor. This metaphor portrays how humans control nature. The woman learns the natural role in evolution. Kingsolver wrote, We carry around these big brains of ours like the crown jewels, but mostly I find that millions of years of evolution have prepared me for one thing only: to follow internal rhythms (Kingsolver). Kingsolver uses descriptive details and vivid imagery to show the relationship of humans in nature.
Joyce Carol Oates takes the view of nature being dominated by humans in an essay called Against Nature. It depicts a man who has a heart attack and then begins to see the natural world with wide-open eyes. Throughout the entire story she describes the relationship between nature and humans. No matter what the circumstances are, humans will over come nature and control it to the best of their abilities. Oates writes, Nature is hard to be overcome but she must be overcome. The former, Nature-in-itself, is, to allude slantwise to Melville, a blankness ten times blank; the latter is what we commonly, or perhaps always, mean when we speak of Nature as a noun, a single entity-something of ours (Oates). The author uses realistic situations to portray that humans see nature as something of our own that they can control. Humans are in control of nature because they are in demand for space.
Money is everything in the twenty first century, and under capitalism we humans will do whatever it takes to get our hands on as much as we can, even if nature is in its way, just to be on top. Almost everybody has a price; bribery is a disturbing line of business. In a society where location will allow profit, a permit is usually required. An environmentalist will write a permit allowing someone to build over nature or to grant an industry permission to be able to pass a pollutants test once dirty money has been exchanged. With absolutely no concern for the environment a company will push excess pollutants into our clean air. Companies are capitalistic slobs who care not for nature or its precious gifts, but for the American dollar. The story The Obligation to Endure by Rachel Carson is about the earth s land and how it is changing because of the toxins we emit into nature. People are in control of nature because they will stop at nothing to gain and rise on the corporate ladder. Carson said, The most alarming of all man s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials (Carson). By clearly stating problems with our society towards nature, the author basically points her finger at what is causing nature to crumble. This use of nature as a trash can is directly due to humans controlling nature.
Humans are dominating and destroying nature to the fullest extent merely because of the capitalistic society that we live in today. People usually think before they act when the situation involves another human being, but when nature is involved, a person will not think twice about the consequences upon nature or what harm may be done. Humans tend to think there is so much of nature that a little cutting and burning here or there won t do any serious or permanent harm. However, in the big picture of the future, what will we have left for out great-grand children to enjoy at the rate of damage humans are doing to nature?
In the story Americans and the Land, by John Steinbeck, he describes man destroying nature and taking over the land all around them. Humans are controlling nature through capitalism without even realizing what is happening. Steinbeck writes, It is little wonder that they went land-mad, because there was so much of it. They cut and burned the forests to make room for crops; they abandoned their knowledge and kindness to the land in order to maintain its usefulness (Steinbeck). The author puts the reader in a state of negative feelings to show his readers that humans are destroying nature all around us and that we are not all aware of this. Humans can destroy the future for our children by being so dominating over nature in the present.
Even though humans cannot stop natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes, people are able to control nature by designing structural buildings and underground cellars for protection against nature s destructive side. Also humans will build structures in nature and take over anything that will hold back a process for any means in the demand for more space.
With these bombarding walls caving in on nature, mankind will soon begin to feel the pressure of the walls squeezing themselves because of all the harm and distress they have put on nature. It s only a matter of time before all the pieces of this horrifying puzzle are put together and nature finally gives way to all the torture and suffering.