One With Nature?
Lisa Couturier gives us a completely new look on how a person can perceive the natural world. While the previous works we have read all point the reader away from society in order to find nature, Couturier shows us how to see it in our own cities. Everything becomes natural, and when you think about it, everything certainly is. She makes the comparison between people in big cities and a community of ants. Most people would look at an anthill(or for that matter, a bird’s nest or a beaver’s dam) and say that those structures are natural, but aren’t these things just like our houses and skyscrapers? I would bet that most people would categorize the Sears Tower as something that is natural. The professor in this work makes this brilliant connection that really offers a new perspective. Discovering that we as humans, and all the byproducts that we create, are only a part of the natural world can be an enlightening experience, but I believe that it can also be very detrimental. Couturier quotes an author named Gary Snyder, who she believes inspired her professor, “ ‘By these lights there is nothing unnatural about New York City, or toxic waste, or atomic energy, and nothing-by definition-that we do or experience in life is ‘unnatural’’�
We touched on this in class briefly last week and I think it is an important thing to note that if we as humans see ourselves and our actions just as a part of nature, we will be unable to notice the things that we do to harm the our environment. Suddenly the pollution that our cars emit into the air becomes acceptable because it’s just a part of the natural system that we are part of. While humans may essentially be just one part of the natural world, we need to be able to step back and be responsible for our actions because they have the more impact than the actions of any other species. We may be just as much a part of nature as the squirrels that run all over Minneapolis, but are they capable of destroying the world the way we are?
Comments
"If we as humans see ourselves and our actions just as a part of nature, we will be unable to notice the things that we do to harm the our environment. Suddenly the pollution that our cars emit into the air becomes acceptable because it’s just a part of the natural system that we are part of".
This is a really good point. Pollution is not natural, and we need to be able to realize that although humans are natural, our products are not. That got me thinking. If our cities create all this light pollution, air and water pollution, etc., how can the animals that live in the cities possibly have a natural life? Pigeons, for example, are being fed by old women who throw bird seed on the sidewalk, so they don't need to hunt for food. They can even take shelter in that women's appartment, and not need to protect themselves from a storm. How natural is that?
Posted by: Kat McCarthy | February 9, 2007 5:55 PM
But in order to effect change we must recover ourselves, one must be whole. since this requires the kind of environment favorable to ones healing, one must seek the kind of lifestyle that is free from the destruction of one's humanness. Efforts to change the environment and to change oneself are both necessary. But we know how difficult it is to change the environment if individuals themselves are not in a state of equilibrium.
Posted by: google assassin | December 4, 2007 1:08 AM