Logan Steffens                                                                                                148 words

lts6@geneseo.edu

INTD 105

The Trouble With Wilderness

In “The trouble with Wilderness” by William Cronon he says that we must preserve the environment. The wilderness we know of today is not real wilderness; it is merely an escape from everyday life. We have lost most if not all connection we once had with the environment. We are an urbanized society and Cronon suggests that we keep that in mind and not to pretend that our home is the wilderness when our home is the civilization we have built. Instead of having to go out to the “wilderness” to appreciate nature we can look within our own cities. Everything there is part of nature from the birds perched on windowsills to the rocks on the ground. The rock outside Suffolk hall exemplifies nature similar to everything around us and shows us that we do not need to leave our homes to see the nature around us.

Racheal Devine                                       about 150 words

rmd20@geneseo.edu

Science Writing INTD 105-19

The Trouble with Wilderness

William Cronon, the author of the essay “The Trouble with Wilderness” develops his ideas on what wilderness means starting from the late eighteenth century all the way to modern day. “For many Americans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected earth.” Starting 250 years ago he describes how the wilderness was thought of as anything but positive, and more as a biblical place. Beginning in the nineteenth century people started to look at the wilderness as a preservation of the world, at this time is when national parks began to be created. In the twentieth century wilderness turned into the frontier and sublime as in the “rare places on earth where one had more chance than elsewhere to glimpse the face of god.” Wilderness today is just one big environmental concern and acts as the foundation for a list of other concerns.

This can connect to my mini essay of the vines because they are wilderness just the same but looked more as a decoration.

Matt Klein                                                            approximately 250 words

mgk6@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Science Writing

“The Trouble with Wilderness” Response

By Matt Klein

William Cronon begins his argument describing humanity’s relationship with nature by explaining past and current beliefs about wilderness. Before the nineteenth century, the “wilderness” was something to be feared. Few ventured there, and the biblical association with the word—the place of Moses’ exile and Jesus’ struggle with Satan—was extremely negative. With the coming of writers such as Thoreau and John Muir, that connotation was completely reversed. Cronon gives two sources for these individuals’ reactions to the wilderness: the sublime, the grandeur of nature through with God can be seen, and the frontier, the opportunity for people to free themselves from civilization through primitivism and become their own individuals. This sentiment led to the birth of environmentalism and conservation in order to preserve the sublime and the frontier. The focus of “The Trouble with Wilderness” is Cronon’s disagreement with the concept of conservation for nature’s sake. Though he admits we should honor nature since it has its own autonomy, he argues that, in attempting to preserve nature, we ironically bring human culture to it. Cronon believes that, if we accept our involvement in nature, “if wildness can stop being just out there and start being also in here,” then we can “[struggle] to live rightly in the world.”

“The Trouble with Wilderness” strongly relates to my mini-essay about the Arboretum. Since the concept of the Arboretum is similar to the parks and nature preserves mentioned by Cronon, his analysis can be directly applied to the relationship of nature and human culture seen at the Arboretum.

Daniel Biskup                                                                              Approx. 165 words

INTD 105

djb29@geneseo.edu

Cronon’s main argument is that the concept of wilderness is a social construct invented by man. He starts by establishing what wilderness is, describing it as isolated nature untouched by man, that serves as a way to save mankind from its over, industrialized self. He then goes on to explain how this construct came about, first demonstrating biblical descriptions of a barren land void of human contact that is associated with original sin and temptation. He moves on to romantic descriptions of nature coinciding with the supernatural and even the divine, leading to the current view of beauty and adventure of the frontier that has inspired park services and conservation efforts.

My object, the greenhouse behind ISC, led me to believe man and nature to be separate, which was why I agreed with Cronon’s argument, because he states that the ideal wilderness is paradoxical because if a piece of nature were untouched by mankind, its influence on that nature would destroy the concept as soon as it entered. Man and nature are separate, but according to Cronon they always tow a fine line of coexistence.

Aubrie Cross
INTD: Science Writing
ac46@geneseo.edu

“The Trouble with Wilderness”

In the essay “The Trouble with Wilderness” by William Cronon, he talks about the drastic change on peoples view points of the wilderness over time. Cronon explains how it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that people began to admire nature. He also states in the beginning of his passage, “For many Americans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the Earth.” In this quote he refers to the fact that our viewpoint of the wilderness is as if it has been untouched and that it is all natural. However, later on he says “Wilderness hides it unnaturalness behind a mask that is all the more beguiling because it seems so natural. Here he begins to contradict his idea and explain how its only a facade. This piece of writing relates back to the Greek Tree because it shows directly how humans have un-purified the wilderness.

Patrick Jones                                                               Approximately 150 Words
pwj2@geneseo.edu
INTD 105-19: Science Writing

The Fallacy of Wilderness

In William Cronon’s essay, “The Trouble with Wilderness”, he addresses the major problem modern environmentalists face in defining the wilderness as natural. Cronon argues that over the past 250 years, the connotation of wilderness has changed from being uncertain and fearful to “a symbol of God’s presence on earth.” , making wilderness a manipulation of civilization. The monopolization of this definition and it’s use as a way to escape reality has created a problem for environmentalists by setting a high standard for what counts as natural that “…the landscape that for better or worse we call home.” does not meet. This fallacy we created for wilderness has caused modern environmentalists to protect the aspects of nature that provide a spectacle at the expense of the trees in our own backyards.
When looking at the parking curb behind Milne Library, I saw a clear dualism between wilderness and civilization. In his essay, Cronon believes that this view of separation between the worlds only divides us more, leaving ourselves “…little hope of discovering what and ethical, sustainable, honorable human place in nature might actually look like.”

Juniper Tremper
Scientific Writing 105-19
Geneseo, NY
~170 words

The Contradiction of Saving Natural Beauty
Juniper Tremper

Throughout his analysis of wilderness, William Cronon never denies the majesty of waterfalls and vast canyons. His point is not that the world is less beautiful than before, but rather, the idea of “wilderness” is littered with ironies and contradictions. Primarily, wilderness once offered connection with God, because in the untouched savage lands, “the boundaries between human and nonhuman” were less. Where we experience crippling awareness of our insignificance, we are most likely to connect to higher power. The contradiction comes with the tourists. Although the scenery is still grand, the tourist’s experience is “familiar enough to be instantly recognizeable,” unlike Cronon’s many literary references, whose revelations were distinctly unique. Furthermore, he points out, the only way to prevent all human destruction of nature is to rid the world of humans.

His observation is relateable to a tree planted only to be cut down, because we conclude that present conditions are not the right ones for proper appreciation. A tree planted amid cement is not a tree so much as a sculpture.

Robert Romano

Rjr12@geneseo.edu

We Are Wilderness

Wilderness has been around for the best and worst times of history and has always played a key role in the life of our planet. Wilderness was there when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, but wilderness was also there to give men such as Henry David Thoreau an experience with the divine world. An idea of Cronon’s that aroused questions within me was when he stated that “If nature dies because we enter it, then the only way to save nature is to kill ourselves.” I found this quote to be very radical and inaccurate because humans are nature and we as a species are biologically designed to live in union with nature. I definitely do see the author’s ideas intertwining very nicely into my mini-essay due to the fact that the author is a lover of nature and the SUNY Geneseo campus is a sensational place that truly shows the world the true beauty of wilderness.

Will Gerber                                                                                       About 150 words

10 MacVittie Circle

Geneseo, New York 14454

(315) 250-9687

wrg1@geneseo.edu

“The Trouble with Wilderness”

By Will Gerber

William Cronon’s essay “The Trouble with Wilderness” is a critique of post American Romantic views on the idea of wilderness. Cronon claims that the contemporary view of the wild, in which we see nature as a test of individualism and escape from modern responsibilities, is not only historically inaccurate but socially damaging. He refers to pre-nineteenth century accounts of people exploring far from civilization and notes that nearly all of them are marked by fear and awe rather than wonder and contentment. This change in outlook was accompanied by a strict line being drawn between the natural and civilized worlds, with the former being glorified and the latter being demonized.

Cronon’s argument holds up well, as we are in fact prone to holding some stretches of nature in higher standing than others. However, I feel he puts too much emphasis on our intrinsic motivation to maintain beautiful expanses of nature and not enough on our desire for clean air and water for our own physical well being.

Hunter Cowles                                                                                About 150 words

hc17@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Science Writing

In his paper, William Cronon  establishes that preserving the environment should be humanity’s first priority, and analyzes how society’s perception of “wilderness” has changed so drastically over time.  Cronon also proposes if humanity can find balance between both urban and nature, the more appreciative we will become of both. In today’s society however, people have a very fabricated idea of what the true wilderness actually is. Cronon explains how various places such as national parks can be misleading representations of the uninhabited wilderness. If one  wanted to discover a destination that is still truly uncontaminated by humanity, we’d have to travel miles away from the city. In the past, surviving in nature was a life or death matter, which caused people to fear the . However today nature is viewed as an oasis or a safe haven where people can escape the stresses of everyday life. As our technology changed, so did our perceptions of nature.