Summary Of The End Of Nature

Bill McKibben’s “The End of Nature”, as the title suggests, is a book on nature and how it has changed over time. McKibben has written four books which are all nature readings. This particular book has an introduction and five chapters. The first two chapters titled “Part I - The Present” discuss the present state of nature while the last three chapters titled “Part II - The Near Future” are the predictions of how nature will change in the future. McKibben suggests that man has brought about destruction of nature by his attitudes and behaviors towards it. An artificial nature has been created due to human interference. Continuing changes caused by human interference has led to an imbalance in the atmosphere causing fast-paced changes in the environment that were not seen in the past.
In the introduction, McKibben has compared the state of the environment today with that of ten years ago. He points out that the most important factor for the condition of the environment today is the disparity that is seen between the changing world and reaction of the human society to this change. He further mentions that natural calamities such as hurricanes, tornadoes and storms can no longer be considered acts of God but are more so acts of humans, who have become the driving forces in the occurrence of these calamities. Destroying the earth by
activities like construction, mining and farming, humans have altered the environment and have influenced the climate changes.
The first chapter of the book is titled “A new Atmosphere”. The work of James Hansen, a NASA scientist has been referenced in the chapter. Here, McKibben explains how uncontrollable forest fires, burning of petroleum products and chlorofluorocarbons are playing their role in increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These byproducts accumulate in the atmosphere and causes damage to the naturally occurring atmosphere and lead to changes in the temperature, sea levels and atmosphere that are resulting in harmful consequences and making the natural world less predictable and more violent. He compared the damage inflicted on the environment by humans to stabbing a man with a toothpick, which will hurt and annoy the individual, but did not cause damage to the vital organs. Humans never considered the fact that to achieve comfort in life, they were polluting the air with carbon dioxide and other harmful gases that would over time alter the intensity of the heat from the sun and cause unpredictable changes in weather patterns.
The second chapter titled ‘The End of Nature’ discusses about the destruction of nature by referencing works of Bob Marshall, Henry Thoreau, John Muir and William Bartram. To support his claim that nature has been destroyed, McKibben cites an example of his observation when walking to the back door of his house and viewing his backyard where he observed a pristine landscape with no signs of any human activity like trash, fences or even a road. But somewhere down the valley he could hear the sounds of a chainsaw in the woods cutting down trees. McKibben suggests that currently human possess the capacity to overpower nature and cause a lasting impression. The final sentence of the chapter “We has built a greenhouse, a human creation, were once there bloomed a sweet and wild garden” summarizes the entire chapter.
In the third chapter titled “A Promise Broken”, the author references Loren Eiseley and discusses changes in the earth. McKibben states that nature promised slow changes over millennia where the change in seasons and environmental factors were not evident. Earth definitely kept its promise for up to four million years until now when change are taking place at such a rapid pace that they have to be measured in decades instead of millennia. These fast paced changes are making it difficult for all the organisms to cope up and adapt to new surroundings. With change in the climate, the average global surface temperature has risen affecting human health, sea surface temperature resulting in intense hurricanes and typhoons and sea levels due to melting glaciers causing loss of land area around the coasts of continents.
In chapter four, “The Defiant Reflex”, Mr.
McKibben explains how human beings are reluctant to change their ways to preserve what is remaining of the Earth. He quotes George Woodwell, “There is no question that we have reached the end of the age of fossil fuels” and suggests that humans continue to utilize oil and coal at an alarming fast rate and also discusses man’s addiction to fossil fuels and also proposes an alternative to use of fossil fuel – bioengineering. McKibben says that the act of causing climatic changes has made humans equivalent to God and they can no longer be referred to as ‘created’ but are now actually the
‘creators’.
In the last chapter, “A Path of More Resistance”, Mr. McKibben talks about the dire state that human beings are in. With all the facilities that currently exist to make life simple and convenient, we have become more resistant to change. The changing environmental factors are causing forests and other natural habitats to die and are effecting the earth as a whole. The author puts forth his feelings by saying that he feels sad to live in a genetically engineered world, yet the entire human society is fast advancing to exactly this kind of world.
McKibben’s discussion of the environmental crisis is very detailed and intelligently explained. I feel the introduction gives us an insight into the changes that happened in the ten years after the book was written. His writing style is impeccable with inclusion of both scientific facts as wells as personal experience. McKibben discusses the environmental problems in relation to humans like how atmospheric degradation can worsen respiratory diseases in man. His in depth discussion on what is preventing humans from adopting a more strong approach to prevent further destruction tells us how much he emphasizes on our ability to change our habits and outlook. He lists factors like use of cars, plastics, pesticides and how they are responsible for destroying the planet. He suggests that if humans take a step back and allow nature to take its course, there are chances that it might reestablish itself, which seems comforting but in reality is not possible. The book does not describe where the earth will go from the current situation of continuing destruction, nor does it present any real solutions to the problems we are facing. The book just illustrates the environmental crisis and gives the reader a lot to think about.
I would recommend this book to the common audience as it is easily understandable with personal inputs from the author as well as scientific details. This book can serve as a warning to the general population as it depicts the condition of the earth currently and how human beings are constantly affecting and destroying it. The book contains elements of nature that a common person can easily follow and understand about the environment.