Justin D’Souza                                                                                                                            About 170 words    SUNY Geneseo

Science Writing

The Paradox of Wilderness

By Justin D’Souza

Many equate “wilderness” with gorgeous, expansive swaths of land, free from any human influence whatsoever.  However, William Cronon challenges the notion that wilderness opposes the human world, calling it a “profoundly human place.” Unlike biblical times, where the wilderness represented the devilish deserts and jungles outside of Eden, environmentalists like John Muir perceived wilderness as a “sublime [godly]” region. This coupled with the idea of a “manly” frontier led many rich capitalists to nature…but only for the mere pleasure of recreation – the wilderness has been designated by humans for humans. In today’s age, environmentalists urge saving biodiversity against human interference, however, the only way to do this, besides killing off our entire species, is interference in nature. Therefore, irony and paradoxes cripple modern environmental ideology.

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Geneseo’s Arboretum correlates with Cronon’s thoughts. Far from sublime and godlike, it is a “wild place close to home.” This allows us to “abandon the dualism that sees the tree in the garden as artificial…and the tree in the wilderness as natural.” The arboretum blends both a garden and forest.