Summary/Responce “Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium”

            In the article “Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium”, Roderick Frazier Nash describes the human species’ destruction of earth and gives his thoughts on a solution that will help return earth closer to its pristine and natural state it began in.  Nash goes into detail of multiple existing propositions and also suggests his own, called “island civilization”.  Nash introduces the article by explaining how he believes that the human species is the cause of the decline of many attributes of earth.  When earth was first created billions of years ago, it was filled with wilderness and was unharmed by humans.  Throughout the years, he suggests that humans have destroyed this wilderness and created cities and roads in its place.  After pointing out that it was the humans that have caused so many changes to the planet, he proposes to attempt to reverse the earth back to its original state as much as possible.  His idea is to remove humans from freely roaming earth and place them onto densely populated and secluded islands where they would be unable to harm the rest of the environment.  This would allow all other animals and nature to grow and live freely without human interference.  Nash describes his idea in much detail and also points out the possible disadvantages of it and the backlash that could uproar due to the change in civilization.    

            Throughout his writing, Nash builds credibility by using different techniques of writing to cause the reader to build trust in him.  One example is his use of quotes from other authors and experts to support his ideas.  He uses their statements to show that both recent and late philosophers share his viewpoints and to prove he is speaking of a probable and realistic problem.  In addition, Nash also includes many quick facts that can help the reader understand his logic more, making his point easier to understand, even if the reader has little or no knowledge of the subject.  Referencing these facts shows his expertise in his study and its relating subjects.

I believe Nash has a great idea in that instead of protecting wildlife and having animals live in captivity, the humans should be separated from the rest of the environment.  It isn’t the animals who are causing harm to themselves and they really have no means of defense.  Therefore, it would be smarter to separate the humans from the rest of the innocent living organisms.  On paper this idea sounds successful, however, when thought about realistically, it would take hundreds or thousands of years to wean all humans off of technology and place them back into what many would refer to as prehistoric times.  In addition, many humans would refuse to change because they are naturally stubborn and also incredibly materialistic.  Another possible opposition to “island civilization” is people demanding freedom, especially those from countries who are more accustomed to it like the United States.  Many would argue that the government does not have the right to take away their belongings, like technology, and move them to completely new surroundings.  I realize that Nash did point out that people who were not inclined to move to these islands could stay on their land and take only what they needed, but I believe that so many people would choose to stay on their current land that the move of the other people would not have all that large of an impact.  The humans still living on the land would still be destroying the wilderness.  On another note, I believe the people who did move onto the islands would start off living peacefully, but eventually they would begin to become selfish and stop sharing.  People would keep as much food and water for themselves as they could causing  wars between the new residents of the islands.  Essentials for living would become the new materialistic items that everyone would be obsessed over having the most of as they could.

Although Roderick Frazier Nash presents an intriguing idea of how to save the world’s wilderness that has not been thought of before, it has many setbacks that need to be worked out before attempting to switch the world over to this new “island civilization”.