Analysis William Cronan's "The Trouble with Wilderness"

The rapid industrialization of the Earth has been one of the greatest changes the earth has undergone, surpassing in magnitude the numerous ice ages or massive extinctions. This industrialization prompted a large chunk of the Earth's population to dwell in cities. As a result, much of the wide open spaces of "nature" were transformed into an environment dominated by buildings and congested with roads and people. It is then no surprise that humans separate themselves from nature and expect nature to be "pristine." Imagine for a moment that you are at a place where you feel like you are "away from it all." It's a special place where you are surrounded by sceneries not usually commonplace. You are surrounded by rows of, swarms of bugs and the unyielding odor of decaying plants permeating through the air. To many of us, these types of places are still reachable. Whether it's in your backyard or a one hour drive away, it's reachable.
However, scholars such as William Cronan argue that because of the way we define "wilderness," there are no such places left on Earth. This is one of the central ideas of William Cronan's, "The Trouble with Wilderness." No matter how many hours you drive or the distance you fly, you will not find a "pristine" location on this Earth. William Cronan writes that we must learn to take responsibility for our actions and accept that we are a part of nature. Only then will we be able to live responsibly with the "wilderness". This argument is logical and is well supported by Cronan. Humans have been altering the world around them for thousands of years. Ever since we evolved a large brain, we gained an unfair advantage for survival in the wilderness. We have slowly (until now) adapted to the wilderness around us. Can anyone imagine a world in which the Homo Sapiens never came to be? In what state would the Earth be? There would be no roads, farms, hole in the ozone, large amounts of greenhouse gasses, or cities. The world would