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Adrienne Seldon
Dr. Santas
Environmental Ethics
9 September 2015
Response Paper 1
The world is in an environmental crisis due to human negligence and abuse of natural
resources. The state that we are in now has been foretold by many environmental philosophers of
the past such as Emerson, Walden, Leopold, and John Muir. In present day times,
environmentalists use films like 11th Hour, Into the Wild, and 180 South to depict the reasons we
need to conserve nature and allow its audience to get to the core of the environmental crisis.
These films challenge traditional environmental beliefs, coinciding with the works of past
environmental philosophers.
11th Hour warns us that we must change our civilization and culture if we want to survive
on this planet. Humans are a unique species because of our ability to use the mind for survival.
As a result, we have shaped our world to fit our needs and desires through the power of the
human mind, but we are now realizing that our strength is also our weakness. Author Daniel
Quinn discusses this flaw in the human species in his book Ishmael and uses the story of the
Garden of Eden to reflect on the current environmental crisis.
According to Quinn, the Garden of Eden is actually a story of man’s shift in thinking and
belief system, and that eating from the Tree would make them think they were wiser, but actually
make them arrogant. This analysis is a direct reflection of our society today. As we become more
knowledgeable in science, technology, and capitalism we become more distant from nature.
Consequently, we are now arrogant because we are more innovative and progressive than all the
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other species on this planet. Humans have a “thinking disorder” (11th Hour) because we believe
that we can truly be separate from nature through technology, but we still live on a planet where
everything is interconnected. This idea only creates a mental detachment from nature and a lack
of reverence for it, which is necessary in order to nurse it back to health.
Another idea that is prevalent in both this film and environmentalists’ works is the belief
in dominion over nature. Rachael Carson proved that dominion over nature can have negative
effects that will eventually come back to haunt us. During the 1950s DDT was sprayed all over
the land, killing off many pests but also killing off birds as well. Her work was frowned upon
because humans use nature as means for progress and growth, so when this work was published
people thought that she was against progress. Nevertheless, her work taught us that the
exploitation of nature will harm us because we too are a part of nature.
Innovation and progress is what makes the human species so special, but too much of
anything, which in this case is growth and expansion, can be a bad thing. The human population
is growing immensely due to higher standards of living and the discovery of antibiotics. In
Western culture and capitalism, we believe that bigger and more is always better. Also, in nature
when a particular species thrives it increases in numbers, but eventually there will not be enough
resources and the species will rapidly decline as a result. Humans are currently approaching this
point. Yes, growth can be positive, but we must incorporate moderation into our ideologies.
Modern civilization also poses a threat to our environment. Due to technology and
capitalism, we have no connection to the things we need and create for survival. As a result, we
are mentally distant from nature. The film Into the Wild and philosophers John Muir and Thoreau
explore these concepts. Chris McCandless, John Muir, and Thoreau all reject modern civilization
to be free, wild, and more connected to nature. Both McCandless and Thoreau suggest that
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civilized life restricts us and keeps us from true happiness. McCandless left his civilized life
behind to free himself from the boundaries of our society. His action reflects Thoreau’s
statement that “he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however
measured or far away” (Walden). In other words, leaving society behind to follow your true
calling, which was nature for these two men, leads to happiness and fulfillment. Men who do not
take this journey live what Thoreau called “lives of quiet desperation,” (Walden) instead of being
free and in touch with their inner wildness.
One major aspect of modern civilization that holds us back is money. Chris burned his
money because he felt that money makes us cautious. Money keeps us in the rut of modern
civilization and prevents us from taking chances that we normally would not take because we
want to save or spend money. Without it, Chris can be completely free from the limits of society
and live life to the fullest because he has nothing else to gain or lose except the experience itself.
Chris’s decision to not be cautious reflects Muir’s claim that “nature always has
something rare to show us, and the danger to life and limb is hardly greater than one would
experience crouching deprecatingly beneath a roof” (Wind-Storm, 92). In other words, we do not
experience the true thrill and beauty of nature because we are too sheltered by modern
civilization. This aspect of our lives is exactly what Chris wanted to leave behind. He wanted to
live life in its truest form, hence the quote “rather than love, fame and fairness, give me truth”
(Into the Wild). Instead of a life filled with the romanticized, manmade ideas of his old life, he
only wanted the truth. This desire reflects Emerson’s beliefs that to truly be part of nature, we
must leave behind as much as we can from society including ideas and previous notions.
Emerson claims that Nature is what makes us whole and is truly everything, and Chris wanted to
fully experience everything in its truest form.
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There are other people who shared the same desires as Chris McCandless, Thoreau, and
Muir. Jeff Johnson, Yvon Chouinard, and Doug Tompkins all share similar journeys. These men
all loved living life in Wildness, but to different degrees. Thoreau defines Wildness as land
untouched by nature that no civilization would dare enter, where humans can find homes away
from their traditional homes in society. According to Thoreau, finding homes in Wildness by
sauntering is the essence of freedom for mankind. He compares the wandering man to the
flowing river, suggesting that we are in a natural state when we saunter through Wildness.
Chris McCandless and the men from 180 South all share the same desire to be a part of
Wildness, but not to the same extent. The men from 180 South all saunter through Wildness on a
more moderate level than Chris, who wanted to completely live in the Wild away from anyone
else. The men from 180 South still had jobs to go home to, more interaction with people and
some compliance with society. Chris, on the other hand, made a change that was all
encompassing and changed every aspect of his life. Although the journeys were different,
Thoreau’s definition of Wildness remains clear in all of them—being encompassed in land that is
pure and untouched by man.
Jeff Johnson’s journey in particular had some very serious ecological implications. His
time spent in Rapa Nui and in Patagonia reflects the teaching of Aldo Leopold and Rachael
Carson. Both Carson and Leopold expressed the negative effects that destroying and
manipulating nature has on us and the environment. They both argued that we exploit nature in
ways that are not even worth the costs, so in the end we are actually losing instead of
progressing. Rapa Nui is a perfect example of a society that used up all of its resources and is a
metaphor for today’s crisis. Even though we have all of these warnings from other civilizations,
philosophers, and scientists, we have yet to truly learn from them and change our ways because
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“men do not learn very much from the lessons of history; and that is the most important lesson of
history” (180 South). This quote implies that we will not learn from history and end up like Rapa
Nui, but on a much larger scale.
The answers for our environmental crisis are right here in front of us. We must change
our patterns and look to civilizations like Rapa Nui for answers and use the teachings of
philosophers such as Muir, Emerson, Carson, and Leopold as guidance for change. The true
source of the environmental crisis lies within our ideologies. We must reconnect with nature,
realize that in the end we can never truly dominate nature, and reconstruct modern civilization in
order to have a healthy planet and self-fulfillment.