What is wilderness? This was the question posed to the class from our first reading and I’ve been contemplating it ever since. Strangely enough, this was the first time that I had deeply thought about my environment. Sure I had had discussions with family, friends, and classmates about topics such as global warming, alternative energy, and endangered species, but I had never truly understood what I was supposed to care about. I had never explored how I had felt about our planet further than mainstream media cared to talk about. This apathy goes back as far as I can remember. Heck, I was that kid who seared ants with a magnifying glass and thought it was cool. This class, Eng 308J, my junior composition class has not just taught me the definition of environmental ethics, something that I wasn’t aware even existed for the first 21 years of my life, but allowed me to explore my own views on the topic. Through the readings, the discussions, and a forced reflection on my views on how I think about our planet, my environmental ethics have changed this quarter.
I guess to get down to how my ethics to have changed, it first took an understanding of what environmental ethics is. The first things about environmental ethics that need to be considered are both whose interests count and whose interests matter. Originally I was simply anthropocentric, period. I cared very little about the interests of anything other than human beings, and even then I had nationalistic views. The only animals I cared about were the pets in my house; otherwise, animals existed either for my entertainment or for food. It was the same for the environment: it existed to benefit me in either materials or enjoyment. I cared nothing about what I could do for it. Thinking about this, I began to wonder where this position on the environment came from. It really started when I was a kid.
My ethics could be traced back to my childhood. I was the kid that I burned ants using magnifying glasses. I also used to catch spider and keep them in jars. It was out of a fascination with arachnids rather than sheer cruelty. However, my father sometimes encouraged a slight cruelty to animals. We used to have a squirrel problem in the summer. The squirrels were getting into our bird feeders, building nests in our attic and gutters and tearing up our deck canopy, so he would send me out with his slingshot to shoot a few, not killing them, but definitely inflicting discomfort. Thinking back, neither of my parents were very environmentally friendly individuals. Recycling was really the only conscious effort that they made.
Even though my upbringing didn’t encourage an environmentally friendly lifestyle, there were some events prior to taking this class that did make me appreciate the world that we live in. Starting when I was 12, I’d go visit my aunt who lived in Boulder, Colorado and she would take me mountain climbing. I was instantly addicted. Not only did I enjoy the feeling of conquering something as massive as a mountain, but also it was the first time that I had truly experienced the wonder of nature. The freshness of the mountain air, the feeling of devoting myself to a piece of earth for a day or two at a time was a completely new idea to me. But what really woke me up was the view. I’ll say this: there is nothing quite as breathtaking as the view from a mountaintop and it was the first time that I experienced this view that I felt any communion with nature. If I had any appreciation for nature before this class, it was brought about by my summers climbing.
Still, even with this appreciation of the beauty of nature, my values are still mainly intrinsic, a point of view that I only became aware of during this class which is a point of view that I only became aware of during this class, that means that I believe that those parts of nature are there for my benefit.. But it was this class that made me think deeper than the superficial views that I had developed throughout my life. Thinking back on it though, I’m surprised that I took such an interest in the environment. A subject that prior to this class, I could have cared very little about.
The aspect of this class that had the largest impact on me was the readings. In fact, it was the first reading, William Cronon’s The Trouble with Wilderness that immediately had me rethinking how I viewed the environment. Cronon’s essay made me rethink how I viewed the term wilderness. At first I had just thought of it as this dark, scary place where the bad guys from Disney movies lived and it was full of dangers, never to be enjoyed, but after reading Cronon’s essay, my view changed. He said that wilderness is a place that is untouched by human presence. This really got me to think about some of the mountains I’ve been on. Where there were no paths, no signs, no one but me and whoever I was with there. Sure others had been there before me, but it would have been difficult to tell. It was then that I felt a connection to the idea of wilderness, to areas where I can sit and experience nothing but nature, and even the danger that comes with some of those areas. The possibility that I could fall hundreds or thousands of feet and no one would be around to help. I immediately became more concerned with my choices regarding the environment because I truly wished to preserve those places that I considered my “wilderness”.
The other part of the class that had a large effect on me was watching the movie Food Inc. I had a very general understanding of the conditions of America’s food industry, but this movie shocked me. It is one thing to read about the horrid conditions that the animals are kept in and the stranglehold that the corporations have over the farmers, but it was a whole other monster to hear and see it in this movie. I couldn’t believe that famers were being forced to put their animals in poor conditions by large companies. The example from the movie was the woman who worked for Purdue Chicken that was being forced to go from ventilated chicken houses to closed ones, which are much less sanitary and less humane. But what made it worse was knowing that it was fast food chains such as McDonalds that dictated these conditions (Food Inc). This was because since McDonalds was the primary buyer of meat products, they got to decide how things were done and they chose efficiency over humanity.
As much as it angered me to hear about the helplessness of the farmers, the true effect came from seeing the conditions the animals are kept in that made me want to change some of my habits. I still was not upset enough to become an activist, but there were a few things that I did after watching Food Inc that I feel distanced myself from those large companies. Now I try to avoid fast food whenever possible. I can’t bring myself to support a business that treats both people and animals like that. I also try to avoid buying products that are made by larger corporations. This is slightly harder because being a college student I try and buy the cheapest products possible, but I am now willing to pay an extra dollar or two if it means a clearer conscience.
After doing the assignment where I had to find the environmental possibilities of my major, I had developed a hope that I might be able to do something on a larger scale than just boycotting companies that mistreated animals and their employees. My major, applied mathematics has made a few contributions to the field of environmental sustainability. Statistical analysis is behind the UN’s Environmental Sustainability Index, which rates the sustainability of the practices of countries. Math is also a major contributor to the field of engineering which is constantly working on forms of alternative energy, which is the one part of sustainability that I am passionate about. The fact that my major is a part of these critical processes makes me want to pursue my field even farther to see if I can make a difference myself.
My ethics have changed over the past ten weeks, there is no doubt about that. If nothing else I have become more aware of the world around me and the affect the choices I make have on it. I have decided to act in a slightly more “green” manner by buying from more local or sustainable companies, I will try to encourage others to recycle, and be more conscious of my energy usage. In all reality I’m being selfish. I’m doing these things to preserve the things I love and to help clear my conscious, but does it really matter what my motives are? I’m making a difference, no matter how small. I still haven’t figured out my true environmental ethics, but I can only develop them through the life experiences that have yet to come.
Work Cited
“The Pilot Environmental Sustainability Index”, ENVSTATS, Alex de Sherbinin and Marc A. Levy, Jan 2000, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ENVIRONMENT/issue8.htm 14 Feb 2011
Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness." Saving Place. Ed. Sidney Dobrin. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. 203-213. Print.
Food, Inc.. Dir. Robert Kenner. Magnolia Home Entertainment, 2008. DVD.
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