My Response to Nash's "Island Civilization"

Johnathon W. Owen

Dr. Hill Taylor

ENG 101

10 January 2012

Summary and Analysis: Island Civilization

     Roderick Frazier Nash’s article Island Civilization discusses past and present human impact on the environment and offers solutions to end this man- made devastation.

     The majority of this piece is dedicated to the author stating his opinion in regards to civilization expanding beyond its sustainable limits. The author makes it clear that he believes that humans have failed the natural environment and are in the process of eliminating all traces of wilderness from the planet. Nash points out facts that strengthen his argument, and quotes famous theologians on their similar views on environmental issues and policies. The combination of these facts and quotes validates the author’s opinion.

     Once the author made his view clear, he goes on to display possible scenarios of how human existence can change within the next millennium. He proposed four possible scenarios. The first scenario that Nash discusses, the “wasteland scenario” depicts Earth as a poisoned and worthless environment that will no longer support the existence of life. The next scenario was that of the “Garden Scenario”. This perception anticipates Earth being a land that is completely absent of wilderness. Human life would control all aspects of the natural world, from “creation” to the “evolution of life”. This new way of life would only support life for a few species, and the entirety of Earth would be consumed by man- made features. The third scenario, Nash referred to as the “future primitive” style of living. This proposed idea would force human existence toward operating as a hunter/ gatherer society once again. The logic behind this idea would be to reduce the human effect of the wilderness down to near zero by placing “Earth First”, which would involve ceasing sexual reproduction in humans. The fourth and final scenario and the favored choice of the author is named “island civilization”. This lifestyle would require the human population to be reduced by seventy- five percent of its current count (to roughly 1.5 billion) and then concentrate this population into five hundred strategically placed locations around the globe. The population would be forced to stay within a one hundred mile radius of the city center, thus cutting off all human effect of the rest of the world’s area. All of these individual areas would operate “similar to Greek City-States” in the sense that they would be self-sufficient and wouldn’t rely on trade for life. This idea essentially flips the roles of humans and the wilderness of the present day, in the sense that humans now become the minority party. The author closes this piece by stating that, although not flawless, the island civilization way of life is the best conceived plan of wilderness reformation thus far.

     In response to this article, I feel that Nash has proposed a nearly impossible solution to this serious problem. The proposed Island Civilization way of life would require all humans, a notoriously stubborn race, to completely alter their existence. One can see by exclusively looking at the proposed population requirement that this plan could never be carried out. Mankind reproduces at a rate of ten thousand lives an hour, and shows no sign of slowing down. With a current population near seven billion, this stipulation is all but achievable. To add to the inoperable nature of this way of life, the idea of having a completely self-sufficient community with a population numbering in the millions in such a constricted area is highly unrealistic. There is simply not enough area on earth that can provide all the resources essential to human existence within such a small area restriction. This proposed solution portrays Earth as utopian society that is clearly unachievable.

     Despite my disagreement with the author’s central argument, I agree with Nash in the fact that Earth is swiftly approaching an all-out environmental meltdown. I also acknowledge Nash’s call to action of the entire human race to end our ways of devastating environmental destruction and the necessity of an environmental revolution to reconstruct our planet.