In the research analysis “We are Petroleum”, author Duskin Drum uses practices-as-research performances to present the Gwich’in-Caribou relations in terms of North American-Petroleum relations. The Gwich’in are an indigenous people home to modern day Northeastern Alaska and Northwestern Canada, who are heavily integrated with the Porcupine Caribou. The Gwich’in have been fighting political and legal battles to protect the sacred caribou calving grounds from oil and gas extraction corporations. Drum uses actual testimony presented to the United States Congress and swaps the word “caribou” with “petroleum” to draw an emotional connection with the audience. The term “Nature” will be defined as any object that has not been produced by human beings.…
Connected within this repressive system, Hogan’s work critically explores the destruction and exploitation of the environment. Broad in scope when confronting the topic, she gives the reader a strong sense of the issues faced in regard to the natural world. Providing clarity to Hogan’s worldview, she juxtaposes that which troubles her against what she views as the correct way to be in the world. She is sharply critical of Western values for covering “the American continent with a view of the natural world that did not accept the Earth was alive and that all species were sentient.” Within the dominant view, the destruction of life is inherent.…
Jimmy Carter’s clever use of personal anecdote begins his argument of why the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be kept preserved. In the the article it says, “More than a decade ago, [my wife] Rosalynn and I had the fortunate opportunity to camp and hike in these regions of the Arctic Refuge. During bright July days, we walked along ancient caribou trails and studied the brilliant mosaic of wildflowers…” This short anecdote gives the audience a moving feeling. Carter makes us feel as if we are there with them, walking the trails and feeling the environment. He gives us an impression that we want/need to keep the environment preserved. He emphasized how beautiful the landscape is to give an impression of guilt if the landscape were to…
The anecdote Carter gives also shows what inspired him to make efforts to protect this land and the life that encompasses it. In this essay Carter explains his amazement with the land and more specifically the Porcupine caribou as they migrated, Carter then goes on to say, “...I was saddened to think of the tragedy that might occur if this great wilderness was consumed by a web of…
Never has a man left the embrace of nature once he found himself enamored by it; this infatuation is found in both John Muir’s and Aldo Leopold’s writing, a sense of wanting to protect this deity they call Mother Nature, a moral and ethical responsibility which every human being has to this Mother. Both John Muir and Aldo Leopold recount their almost romantic encounter with Mother Nature in their books Our National Parks and A Sand County Almanac, respectively. However, in both books it is notable that each man carries instilled in the very fiber of their being a sense of dissatisfaction toward the process of mechanization and industrialization; processes which unfortunately…
He appeals to the audience’s emotions by revealing the cruel “tragedy” and intentions of the “industrial facilities.” From the “unforgettable and humbling experiences,” Carter mentions, the sudden plummet of mood further rubs salt into the wound of mankind’s destructive actions. Furthermore, Carter develops his argument by appealing to logos, in which he explains that even if the Arctic Refuge were to become demolished, the habitat would only “provide 1 to 2 percent of the oil our country consumes each day.” He shows the readers that the “alleged benefits” are nothing but “short-term economic gain.” Additionally, Carter brings up the trend of Native Americans losing their homes and culture for industrial and urban development, bringing both sides of opinion to feel a sense of guilt of history repeating.…
The absurdity of certain arguments, for me, makes it difficult to fairly analyze a piece of work. It is my lack of patience for supreme stupidity that disables me from comparing two certain articles on the topic of “Wilderness”. When asked to read, summarize, and then write about the differing opinions between Wallace Stegner’s “Wilderness Letter” (1960) and William Cronan’s “The Trouble with Wilderness” (1996), I approached reading them not expecting too much of a difference or surprise. I actually expected the latter article to be more astute being that it was written 36 years more recently. Upon completing the philosophical, brief, and rather vague article by Wallace Stegner, I looked forward to reading the next article to see if my assignment was worth my time. The incoherent, unfounded ramblings of William Cronan baffled me so much that I never re-read the first article, opting instead to read and research his arrogant nonsense many times over. I have been instructed to represent the ideas of each author fairly; but fairness is a term subject to interpretation, and I believe it is only fair (or rather my duty) as a critic to…
The novel, Into The Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, provides a professional insight into Chris McCandless’s one-hundred-thirteen day rogue dissonance from society, meaning, abandoning his possessions, car, money, and even his well-to-do family. Many consider McCandless’s voyage as intriguing or inspiring. However, I believe McCandless’s actions are egotistically and ideologically driven for the same reasons Krakauer wrote the novel, for the benefit of their own self-interest. Krakauer provides the reader a disservice while writing McCandless’s adventure because the author's writing illuminates an ethically complex bias, which ultimately turned McCandless into a product and a tourist phenomenon. Consequently, Krakauer made a substantial profit, and allowed the wilderness, a place McCandless was attempting to preserve, to become extinct.…
Sarah Jacquette Ray’s concept of “The Ecological Other” can be used to describes the relationship between the environment and the type of bodies classified as “ideal” or “other” by a society. Similarly, the article “What it means to Rewild,” by Patrick J. Kiger plays on this concept of “The Ecological Other” by examining how “Rewilders” believe that modern civilization has psychologically and physically harmed the connection people have with mother nature and therefore, made them unfit to coexist in a modern society. Another way to look at the “Rewilding” phenomena is by considering that many “nature based” arguments can be used to implement specific social programs that are designed to control or discriminate against certain groups of people. For instance, Sarah Jacquette Ray contends that environmental ideologies have directly contributed to the subjugation of impaired, immigrant and Native Indian people. Moreover, white environmental justice ecocritics have often racialize the wilderness narrative by ignoring the fact that non-whites also lived and reflected upon the same landscapes through writing.…
“Bloody Ice” is an essay arguing against the mass slaughter of Harp Seals. The author reveals the legal limits for the amount of seals allowed to be killed each year as stated by the U.S. Seal Protection Act and pleads for the further reduction of those limits. The passage argues that the inevitable extinction of the animals and the inhumane methods by which they are killed are cause for severe regulations on seal hunting. In the conclusion of the paper, it is suggested that ranching the seals would reduce impact on seal population and cut down dependency on the seal industry. The essay starts off well, but generally lacks in persuasively arguing its point and is therefore ineffective as a whole.…
In his critique, “The Trouble with Wilderness or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” William Cronon argues against the romantic conceptualization of nature that a great portion of the environmentalist movement has embraced. Subsequently, Cronon revokes the Romantic and even quasi-religious notion that wilderness spaces are separate from those inhabited by man. He argues that by eliminating the divide in perception between the human constructs of the natural world and the civilized world, man will be encouraged to take more responsibility for his actions that negatively impact the environment. In prefacing his conclusion, he writes, “Home, after all, is the place where finally we make our living. It is the place for which we take responsibility,…
It is difficult to find writers more passionate about the natural environment than John Muir and Edward Abbey. Both Muir in a section from his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf and Abbey in a chapter titled Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks channel anger and frustration at the environmental policies of their time into literature that argues fervently for preservation of national parks and other areas of wilderness. In Hetch Hetchy Valley, Muir reverently describes in vivid detail the beautiful landscape of a river valley in Yosemite called the Hetch Hetchy Valley, condemning anyone who supports a government plan to dam the Hetch Hetchy River and flood the valley. In a famous quote Muir says, “no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man” (Muir 112). Abbey employs a highly sarcastic and satirical tone to outline the consequences of further expansion of roads and highways into national parks. He aims to incite anger with sharp language and insults to draw the reader in emotionally. “This is a courageous view, admirable in its simplicity and power… It is also quite insane” (Abbey 422). Both pieces easily stand alone, but when looked at together they suggest even more strongly that it is deceptive and dishonest to advertise industrialization of wilderness as any kind of favorable progress for society. This “progress” does not actually benefit anyone. Those who proclaim this as their reason for supporting industrial development are more likely motivated by the short-term economic benefits they will receive.…
This will seem a heretical claim to many environmentalists, since the idea of wilderness has for decades been a fundamental tenet—indeed, a passion—of the environmental movement, especially in the United States. For many Americans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth. It is an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity, the one place we can turn for escape from our own too-muchness. Seen…
In paragraph five Jimmy Carter appeals to the reader using logic when he says, “In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the original 8.9 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Range to preserve its unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values”. Jimmy Carter uses this piece of information to show that other people have taken steps to help protect the wildlife. This makes the reader realize that this is not just a simple issue nobody cares about, and that it is a big issue others are taking initiative to fix. Also in paragraph seven, Jimmy Carter uses logic to appeal to the reader. When Jimmy Carter says “At best, the Arctic Refuge might provide 1 to 2 percent of the oil our country consumes each day. We can easily conserve more than that amount by driving more fuel-efficient vehicles”. Jimmy Carter says this to show the reader that destroying the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not going to benefit anybody and that the solution to the problem is to uses resources more sparingly. This makes the reader feel a sense of guilt in that they might be the reason behind to possible destruction of the Arctic National Wildlife…
Aldo Leopold, in his essay collection A Sand County Almanac explores the natural world, and the symbiotic relationship that’s shared between plant and animal, while also insinuating how humans live in opposition to that fragile synchrony, for we live to reshape our environment for contemporary gains. Leopold is able to write the essay as an ecological historian, who’s knowledge comes from the topography of the Wisconsin landscape, the rings of an Oak tree, or a single atom entombed in a limestone ledge. The first two sections of the book gravitate around two opposing forces conservation and modern progress (scientific advancement, economical growth.…