Ronald Wright's 'Off Long Island, Wind Power Tests The Waters'

The history of humanity has always been in relation to evolution and progression. Humans went from one invention to another to lead up to the twenty-first century, doing anything to get humanity ahead. Subsequently, this lead to the environment being sacrificed for the temporary benefit of humans. In Ronald Wright’s book A Short History of Progress the consequences of peoples’ choices are explored and utilized as a warning to change the course humanity is currently taking. Through Wright’s sentiments in his work, Diane Cardwell’s article “Off Long Island, Wind Power Tests the Waters” can be viewed as a representation of the central message of this piece. This is apparent through its discussion of progress in regards to the environment and
It is through the latter of these two different extremities that he coined the term “progress trap”. An adequate example Wright provided is the perfection of hunting, in which hunters enable themselves to acquire more than one source of meat versus hunters killing entire herds of animals. The mass killing of animals is a trap as it is an impediment to their progress. With an increased mount of food, the population would rise causing a growing need for more food, which would eventually lead to a depletion of resources. When circumstances like these arise, humans tend to create even more inventions to mend the previous problems, like the Neolithic Revolution. It is progress traps like these that have led to the current generation and because of these ‘inventions’ the world is suffering. For instance, in taking up agriculture humans subjected themselves into a life long dependence on the growth of plants. Or even worse, humanity’s selfish tendencies of rapid deforestation and omitting dangerous substances into the environment has led to global warming. This behavior is what will leave everyone susceptible, as this will affect the very thing people depend