Within environmental sociology there has been a lot of thought and research put into
defining how people view the environment and the affect these views have on actions that affect
the environment. In general the classical view of nature is one of pristine nature or wilderness
that does not include environments touched by humans. William Cronon argues that these
untouched environments are in fact also a human creation since the human idea and valuation of
wilderness is what preserves these areas1. These sites preserved early on, Yosemite and the
Grand Canyon, were all areas that inspired some sort of religious awe, or an experience of the
sublime. Another cultural concept is the idea of the frontier, and this is a more uniquely
American idea. Again somewhat grounded in religious belief, the frontier was regarded as a new
area of land to take over and develop in the name of America and Christianity, the concept of
Manifest Destiny. The frontier was also regarded as the last place for rugged individualism and
to escape the confines of the city. During the Civil War area this view of frontierism lead to the
wealthy grabbing land in the Adirondacks, hunting trips to the West and development of large
resorts anywhere that was deemed as “wild”1. Eventually the pull of the frontier created the same
society that the creators were trying to escape and populated the West with urbanism. Several
sustainability issues that stem from these ideas are the removal of native people and plant and
animal species to make way for leisure activities which in turn disrupt the “untouched” land.
This view also makes humans separate from nature and makes it difficult for humans to realize
their effect on the environment when humans are not actually a part of the system. This prevents
the human population, especially in America, from developing a systems or matrix view of our
environment, a point of view essential to address sustainability issues. The frontier or wilderness
view of the environment also tends to value large mammals over other organisms within the
ecosystem web. This leads to a devaluation of smaller organisms like insects and worms, which
are essential to the health of an ecosystem and generally left out of protection efforts.
Another classical concept of nature is the idea of Mother Earth. This idea has two
different effects on two different groups of people. Within the group of people who are
concerned about the environment and the effect of human activity see Mother Earth as “damsel
in distress” figure that needs to be protected from those who could hurt her2. This concept has a
similar effect in dividing the human race from the global ecosystem and limiting the ability to
use matrix thinking. The abuse of this imagery can be seen in many “green washing” tactics and
was widely used by BP after the Gulf oil spill to try to remedy their poor reputation3. Outside of
the environmental movement Mother Earth can be interpreted as a provider who must ensure her
children are able to thrive. This view causes humans to believe that everything the Earth has is
there for their taking and use, which creates an overuse of resources and often pollution. Giving
the Earth a female persona again limits the ability of the human population to effectively think
about an act upon sustainability issues.
Citations
1. Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness; Or, Getting Back to the Wrong
Nature." Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. 6990. Print.
2. Andersen, Robin. "Selling “Mother Earth”: Advertising and the Myth of the
Natural." Reclaiming the Environmental Debate: The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture. By
Richard Hofrichter. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2000. 292-306. Print.
3. Bell, Michael. An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge, 1998.
Print.
Annotation: The Trouble with Wilderness
1. Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness; Or, Getting Back to the Wrong
Nature." Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. 6990. Print.
2. William Cronon has a D.Phil from Jesus College along with a Ph.D. from Yale and is
primarily an environmental historian. He is currently a research professor at the University of
Wisconsin and the president of the American Historical Association. His most noted work is
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England which focuses on the
effect of property laws on ecology.
3. The main argument of the text is that the idea of the wilderness creates several sustainability
issues and is not really the concept people regard it to be.
4. Cronon first talks about the difference from the concept of the sublime and the concept of
wilderness and their historical origins. He includes lots of quotes from authors of the time about
their views on nature to strengthen the examples. Finally he identifies other ways of
environmental thinking and identifies their strengths and weaknesses.
5. “Far from being the one place on earth that stands apart from humanity, it is quite profoundly
a human creation – indeed, the creation of very particular human cultures at very particular
moments in human history” – presents the concept that the idea of wilderness is actually a human
construct.
“Wilderness came to embody the national frontier myth standing for the wild freedom of
America’s past and seeming to represent an ugly attractive natural alternative to the ugly
artificiality of modern civilization.” – embodies the appeal of the frontier to the American culture
“Wilderness embodies a dualistic vision in which the human is entirely outside the natural. If we
allow ourselves to believe that nature, to be true, must also be wild, then our very presence in
nature represents its fall” – presents the central paradox Cronon argues is the trouble with
wilderness
6. The text is very helpful in identifying the general views Western society has towards nature
and the problems they present to thinking about environmental solutions. It gives a very detailed
historical view and analysis of the traditional view of nature.
7. For my post I used the descriptions of the sublime and frontier in addition to describing the
paradox it creates in the view of nature separate from human interaction.
Annotation: Selling “Mother Earth”
1. Andersen, Robin. "Selling “Mother Earth”: Advertising and the Myth of the
Natural." Reclaiming the Environmental Debate: The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture. By
Richard Hofrichter. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2000. 292-306. Print.
2. Robin Andersen has degrees from various University of California campuses including a
Ph.D. from Irvine, she is now a professor in the Department of Communication and Media
Studies at Fordham University. She focuses on the media and conflict, focusing on the
interactions between the media, women, developing countries and sustainability.
3. The main focus of the chapter by Andersen is on the presence of “greenwashing” in the
advertisements of many companies that rely on images of pristine Mother Nature to market their
products. The catch of these products is that they often use processes during production that
pollute the very pristine images they produce.
4. First Andersen describes two different advertisements, one for Kitchen Aid and one for
Whirlpool, that rely on greenwashing to introduce the main idea. Next she goes more in depth on
the concept of Mother Nature including the origins and implications of holding these kind of
conceptions about the environment. Finally she uses examples of various products, like SUVs
and cosmetics, and the conflicting consumer desires they embody, for example dominating
nature but also experiencing the wilderness when buying a SUV.
5. “The concept Mother Nature helps associate bottled water with purity and inspiration and
compels people to express their love for nature by buying individual plastic containers, a
substance that degrades the environment, present hazards to public health, and ultimately has the
potential to contaminate our drinking water” – fully explains the paradox behind greenwashing
and consumption of greenwashed products.
“Instead of creating popular support by moving towards sustainable resource management, less
toxic ingredients, and manufacturing, waste reduction and reusable packaging, corporations rely
on perception management through advertising” – highlights the tactics used in greenwashing
instead of implementing sustainable practices.
“While [the concept of Mother Nature] may have had a noble purpose, when this concept is
lifted from its social and cultural contexts and reinserted within patriarchal capitalist culture, it is
turned into a commodity and commercialized in ways that ironically come to support the
economic practices that misappropriate the Earth’s resources. This new hybrid of Mother Earth is
now a woman destined to be dominated” – shows the consequences of giving nature a female
connotation and the effect on the environment.
6. The chapter by Andersen helps give specific examples about the issue of the concept of
Mother Nature and context within another sustainability issue, greenwashing. By giving detailed
accounts of various tactics used to appeal to people on the grounds of protecting Mother Nature
it helps paint a picture of the dichotomy of the school of thought.
7. For my post I used the historical example of Mother Nature as a helpless figure who needs to
be saved and also tied it to the exploitation of the imagery in green washing.
Annotation: An Invitation on Environmental Sociology
1. Bell, Michael. An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge, 1998.
Print.
2. Michael Bell is sociologist and is currently a professor on environmental and cultural
sociology at the University of Wisconsin. Most of his other books tackle issues using the dialogic
approach to sociological issues.
3. An Invitation to Environmental Sociology focuses on introducing the concepts of
environmental sociology by examining phenomena and theories about production and
consumption, population, health, ideologies and risk and the way they affect how we think about
the environment.
4. To help present the information on sociology Bell uses personal stories and examples from his
life of attempted environmental action. He also uses diagrams and images to help explain
theoretical processes that happen in our society. Finally Bell divides his book into The Material,
The Ideal, and The Practical to help the reader fully understand the dialogue in society between
the material and ideal and how they manifest themselves in the practical.
5. “Environmental sociology is the study of community in the largest possible sense. People,
other animals, land, water, air - all of these are closely interconnected. Together they form a kin
of solidarity, which we have come to call ecology” – helps the reader understand what is
encompassed in the study of environmental sociology.
“Ecological dialogue is also a way to conceptualize power – to conceptualize the environmental
relations that share our scope for action: our ability to do, to think to be. These relations of power
include both the organizational factors and materiality and the knowledge factors of our ideas –
which in turn shape each other” – set the stage for how our thoughts about the environment and
out environment itself interact with each other and create our reality. Most of Bell’s theories
bring out the appearance of dialogues throughout society.
“To speak about the beauty of ecology, then, is to speak about every living thing’s right to a
home, habitat, that is sustainably beautiful and beautifully sustainable.” – the beauty of ecology
is a concept humans want to achieve but many of the ways we think about nature make this goal
hard to reach.
6. This text helped to paint a general overview of the environmental problems society faces, why
they exist, how we think about them, and how these two concepts affect how society approaches
sustainability issues. The text also focuses on the idea of environmental domination and its ties to
thinking about Mother Nature.
7. For my post I used the example about the Mother Nature references in the post BP oil spill
advertisements and also the idea of the challenges to thinking about systems when we separate
ourselves from the environment.