Nash Reading response

            In an essay by Dr. Roderick Nash titled island civilization: a vision for human occupancy of EARTH, Dr. Nash conceptualizes a world in the fourth millennium. In his envisioned future Dr. Nash proposes island civilizations entirely self-sufficient and environmentally friendly, surrounded dense wildlife left to its own will. In this plan the world population has been throttled to a mere 1.5 billion, this is nothing compared to the 7 billion of today and the billions more our growth rate suggests. Dr. Nash moves to a more detailed possible version of “Island Civilization”, with humans being scattered in five hundred habitats with a 100 mile radius all self-sufficient, having food, energy, and waste dealt with in this radius. With this new style of living societies architects and engineers would create very technologic and futuristic environments with giant floating sky metropolises similar to metro city in the 2009 movie “Astro Boy” or barge like metropolises over oceans. Goods would not need to be exchanged or traded only cultural exchanges. Dr. Nash envisions a futuristic version of the Greek-city states of old.

            In doing this Nash hopes that problems of modern society will be mended and a new system with a more utopian society will be created. Nash notes how some people might not live in these dense metropolises. The option given would be to live in the wilderness as a movement back to old hunter gatherer ways. These people would live off the land in what Nash calls “future primitive”. Furthering this ideal young people would be encouraged to take a two year mission in the wild.

            I believe that Dr. Nash’s   theory of “Island Civilization” is a commendable idea with many very earth friendly aspects. By leaving the majority of earth to its own devices the polluted and overworked land would be given a chance to heal itself of the parasitic human race of decades and centuries of the past much like earth was left fallow in the movie Wall-E. Plant succession would begin anew, slowing taking apart our old buildings and growing over them, turning back the clock to the forestland that existed before humanity laid it to waste. If this plan were to work both humans and the environment could live in peaceful harmony.

            While a good theory I believe that Dr. Nash’s plan will never come to fruition at least not in the way he thinks it will. People will never want volunteer their freedoms and land to live on island metropolises. Also Big Business, who has the majority say of what goes in our society, will try every possible way to prevent this. Anything short of the governments of the world combining into one giant governmental body to force this new system into effect, would lead to this plan being an epic failure. Nash fails to account for humans’ inherent greed and self-interest.  Even if this system is actually successful it would take only a few generations for people to forget about the ideals of their ancestors and for business and expansion to start up anew. The world in another few hundred years or so after the creation of the Island Civilization society would be back to the mindset and conditions of modern day society.

            I feel that Nash’s system is admirable and if successful, would be wonderful for both the earth and humans but, it would ultimately fail as humans would start expanding and taking advantage of the earth all over again.

            I personally believe that people will ultimately always take advantage of the land over time and that we will keep expanding until we have exceeded the Earths carrying capacity and probably start colonizing other planets and moons taking advantage of their resources also. In a never ending cycle.