By Johanna R. Thibault, Esq.
April 11, 2012
On my run this morning, I got slightly ambitious and took a detour along old farm roads and forest trails. I had a general idea of where I was and where I was going, yet there were a few moments of panic as I climbed over trees and felt that my feet were the first to touch the ground on the trail in quite some time. Instinctively I turned my attention to my surroundings and watched and listened...
My mind started acknowledging that this would be a dangerous thing to do back home in Vermont or the foothills in California. On more than one occasion I stumbled upon a black bear and there are one too many stories of hikers and other athletes being confronted and often attacked by mountain lions in populated areas in California.
Here in rural Bavaria, though, this is less of a concern. In fact, there is very little of that type of "wild"-life to be seen here. Despite this realization, it was difficult to calm my mind and relax until I found myself back on open road.
In "Wilderness and the American Mind," Robert Nash talks about how the European settlers tamed the wilderness when they came to American. The word "wilderness" itself implied that things were "of the wild" and were therefore untamed and to be feared. I read this book in college, as I'm sure many environmental studies scholars did and still do, and I recall being appalled at such destruction of untouched beauty. My young environmental mind could not fathom the idea that someone could conquer wilderness in such a violent manner. I suppose my more mature mind grapples with this as well.
As I was running along a barely beaten path in the wilderness today though, I found myself pondering the minds of those earlier settlers and possibly finding a sense of empathy. They came from a world where wild animals were to be feared. The Romans used them for sport and food for hundreds of years, and coming across a wild animal while on foot often meant your demise.
So much of the old world had been settled for hundreds, and in some cases, thousands, of years. To enter into uninhabited territory covered in forests and filled with the natural beauty that accompanies unchartered territory must have been frightening. The Native Americans learned to live as one with this so-called wilderness, yet the Greeks, Romans, and our other European ancestors found a different approach to a means to live. Then again, that part of the world was at war for hundreds of years and a fortress was much safer when set apart from the wild.
Perhaps this is what makes certain environmental ideologies so difficult for conservatives to grasp or accept. The fear of knowing that our actions are at the root of our planet's potential demise. We are forcing the extinction of species and the imbalance of the earth's harmonious rhythms.
Even I have to admit that initially accepting the concept of global warming and climate change was too daunting for me to believe. Imagining that humans are endangering the viability of the planet and contributing to the inevitable death of thousands of species is an overwhelming idea. Thus, it is not impossible to understand why this idea, despite the copious amounts of science that supports climate change, is one that a majority of the population cannot and will not accept.
Wilderness and the American Mind. Perhaps the most efficient approach to politically assist the protection of the environment is to eliminate the fear that humans possess for the wilderness and replace it with responsibility and acceptance of the damage we have done. Maybe then environmental laws and legislation will be less political and more of a necessity. The unlikelihood of this is at the root of my fears. My job and my dreams would be much easier without the need to explain the importance of our planet's resources and the reasons for protecting it.
April 11, 2012
On my run this morning, I got slightly ambitious and took a detour along old farm roads and forest trails. I had a general idea of where I was and where I was going, yet there were a few moments of panic as I climbed over trees and felt that my feet were the first to touch the ground on the trail in quite some time. Instinctively I turned my attention to my surroundings and watched and listened...
My mind started acknowledging that this would be a dangerous thing to do back home in Vermont or the foothills in California. On more than one occasion I stumbled upon a black bear and there are one too many stories of hikers and other athletes being confronted and often attacked by mountain lions in populated areas in California.
Here in rural Bavaria, though, this is less of a concern. In fact, there is very little of that type of "wild"-life to be seen here. Despite this realization, it was difficult to calm my mind and relax until I found myself back on open road.
In "Wilderness and the American Mind," Robert Nash talks about how the European settlers tamed the wilderness when they came to American. The word "wilderness" itself implied that things were "of the wild" and were therefore untamed and to be feared. I read this book in college, as I'm sure many environmental studies scholars did and still do, and I recall being appalled at such destruction of untouched beauty. My young environmental mind could not fathom the idea that someone could conquer wilderness in such a violent manner. I suppose my more mature mind grapples with this as well.
As I was running along a barely beaten path in the wilderness today though, I found myself pondering the minds of those earlier settlers and possibly finding a sense of empathy. They came from a world where wild animals were to be feared. The Romans used them for sport and food for hundreds of years, and coming across a wild animal while on foot often meant your demise.
So much of the old world had been settled for hundreds, and in some cases, thousands, of years. To enter into uninhabited territory covered in forests and filled with the natural beauty that accompanies unchartered territory must have been frightening. The Native Americans learned to live as one with this so-called wilderness, yet the Greeks, Romans, and our other European ancestors found a different approach to a means to live. Then again, that part of the world was at war for hundreds of years and a fortress was much safer when set apart from the wild.
Perhaps this is what makes certain environmental ideologies so difficult for conservatives to grasp or accept. The fear of knowing that our actions are at the root of our planet's potential demise. We are forcing the extinction of species and the imbalance of the earth's harmonious rhythms.
Even I have to admit that initially accepting the concept of global warming and climate change was too daunting for me to believe. Imagining that humans are endangering the viability of the planet and contributing to the inevitable death of thousands of species is an overwhelming idea. Thus, it is not impossible to understand why this idea, despite the copious amounts of science that supports climate change, is one that a majority of the population cannot and will not accept.
Wilderness and the American Mind. Perhaps the most efficient approach to politically assist the protection of the environment is to eliminate the fear that humans possess for the wilderness and replace it with responsibility and acceptance of the damage we have done. Maybe then environmental laws and legislation will be less political and more of a necessity. The unlikelihood of this is at the root of my fears. My job and my dreams would be much easier without the need to explain the importance of our planet's resources and the reasons for protecting it.
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