Environmentalism In Oryx And Crake

While Crake was creating a successful life for himself, Jimmy/Snowman, was struggling to find a job that he enjoyed and his life was spiraling downwards. Atwood’s overall argument about environmentalism has to do with human manipulation of nature. Through her various examples, such as the genetic modification of animals, she demonstrates the human tendency to alter and change our atmosphere and our surroundings so that it benefits us. In Oryx and Crake, humans have stopped fretting and worrying about ethics: the manufacturing of animals, the genetic engineering, none of this fazes them anymore; they have begun to only think about their own needs. Pigoons are genetically bred to produce viable organs that can replace human organs. "The goal of the pigoon project [. . .] had gone into OrganInc Farms" (22-23); this is another example of humans using animals to benefit themselves. Peter Jacques states in “The Rearguard of Modernity: Environmental Skepticism as a Struggle of Citizenship” that “[i]f humanity is not interdependent with nature, and humanity has no obligation to nature itself, then human society is released from any expectation or obligation to consequences that may result from changing nature” (88). This quote greatly explains Oryx and Crake; the more the scientist test and genetically engineer and alter animals
The scientists are out of control creating all different types of genetically altered animals, believing there are helping society, while others, like Jimmy’s mother believes that process is inhumane. As scientists continued to genetically alter the animals, strange humanoid creatures began to show something approaching human traits; this might suggest another future for the world. Whether it is a hopeful future, or just another way into disaster, is something that is left purely to the