Americans And The Land 'And The Historical Roots Of Our Ecological Crisis'

Emma Diaz

Dr. Summers

English 1103-28-39

18 September 2014

Relationship between Humans and Nature

The relationship between humans and nature is an important topic in which many people contribute ideas to and have done studies on. It is important for people to see that nature is a necessity and that we are responsible for protecting it. In essays and an article, John Steinbeck, Lynn White, Peter Kahn, Rachel Severson, and Jolina Ruckert discuss their beliefs and information they have found to be true about humans and nature living together.

In the article "Americans and the Land", John Steinbeck talks about the American settlers ' impact on the land. He states that the relationship between humans and nature used to be one of settlers living
's essay "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" addresses the relationship between humans and nature by bringing up the issue of what Christianity tells people about their relationship with the environment. It is interesting that White brings up the component of religion in how people treat nature because it is a huge aspect that oftentimes doesn 't get talked about much. White states that Christians believe that God gave them dominance over nature and that it was given to serve man. Because of this dominance that we have, people feel indifferent about exploiting nature and using it to serve themselves. Although I know this is true and is found in Genesis, I believe God intended it differently. I believe that just as God has ultimate rule over the earth and exercises his authority with loving care, he expects humans to do the same with the environment. God was careful in how he made the earth, and He wants us not to be careless and wasteful in how we take care of it. Although, I do agree that this mindset is a problem and has been a problem, so the best way to combat this is to teach Christians to dig deeper in to God 's word to figure out what exactly He means when he says something like
Severson, and Jolina H. Ruckert discuss the impact on humans of how technological nature is coming to replace actual nature in the essay. In the essay, they come to the conclusion that this replacement causes changes in the physical and psychological well-being of the human species. Kahn, Severson, and Ruckert state that nature is imperative to have in human lives. The authors did a study in which they found that simply looking outside of a window reduces heart rate which in turn reduces stress. Near the end of the essay, the authors discuss the issue of Environmental Generational Amnesia. This is a condition that humans may face in which, because of "adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing"(Kahn, Severson, and Ruckert, 37). In a study, they figured out that technological nature is better than no nature at all. And they also know that humans have an evolutionary need to affiliate with nature, so we either have to adapt to technological nature, or go extinct. The authors know that talking to people about these environmental issues is becoming harder as most people aren 't aware of or simply don 't believe that they are a problem. I think that this was a very important study to do and shows people the importance and necessity of going out into