Island Civilization Summary/Reponse

Nash presents various scenarios in accordance with what he strongly feels would be appropriate tactics for conserving the environment.  He expresses his concerns about how humans have destroyed the earth and that there is no longer wilderness, which he defines as a place where wild animals roam and where natural processes proceed unencumbered by human interference. Nash is convinced that every natural aspect of the world has been tainted by humans and at this point, nature and the wilderness no longer exist.

 Nash’s “wasteland scenario” predicts that Earth will be one giant dump site, ruined with trash and debris from humans. In another possible world known as the “garden scenario”, he imagines humans should inhabit every square mile of land, resulting in low biodiversity. Nash’s third scenario, “future primitive”, suggests to completely disregard the fact that the world and technology ever existed, and to consider the last ten-thousand years of history as merely “a bad experiment.” His most enthusiastic yet obscure idea is called “island civilization”, in which he has humans occupy solely islands, and no other land. From there, we would no longer rely on any form of technology, since according to him, “technology is essentially neutral”, but it’s what we do with it that makes it have negative impacts. Nash insists that in this new society we should resort back to our primitive ways of hunter gathering and foraging. He has a very cutthroat approach for completely transforming our way of life in order to restore the planet and reverse the damage that has been done to it.

            Yes, I have to agree that humans are a wasteful race and we certainly could have done a better job in the past of conserving our environment, but efforts to do so are growing stronger each and every day. For example, recycling is promoted in almost everything we do; whether it is in the grocery store with reusable shopping bags as opposed to the former plastic bags, or the “go green” slogans appearing on merchandise and apparel, becoming popular everywhere. Also, it is common among large public facilities such as in universities, to have advanced plumbing systems designed to use only as much water as needed. For instance, signs above toilets direct one to flush up for liquid waste, which uses less water, and to flush down for solid waste, which uses slightly more water – but just enough; this advances water conservation efforts nationally and has saved millions of dollars.

Nash’s island civilization approach is radical and slightly absurd in that he is insists we should go back to the “caveman days” and completely detach ourselves from any form of civilization. This is quite unnecessary and although change is essential for progress to occur, going from one extreme to another could just as well backfire and lead to further disaster. Anything in moderation is acceptable; island civilization has potential to go a lot further if it were watered down. For instance, instead of migrating to islands, simply occupying less land would be a better attempt at using less space. Changes here and there would make a much bigger difference overall, rather than a completely different way of life, which seems quite drastic. Personally, I believe that technology is what will help us to overcome the problems we have had with environmental damage, and aid in reaching out globally – in moderation, of course.