Interpreting Nature

For the past two weeks in my English class, there's been alot of reading and classwork on nature- specifically, the portrayal of nature in literature. What is typical of the images we associate with nature? Streams? Mountains? Thunderstorms? Untouched wilderness? Or perhaps parks and gardens? Any way you look at it, it seems as though nature is open to an enormous range of human interpretation. At one end of the spectrum, there's nature as a source of harmony, beauty, perfection, and tranquility. The sound of a forest waking with birdsong, the complexity of a flower, and the intricate balance of life are just a few of the many phenomena that provide humanity with this perspective. On the complete contrary, we may view nature as a cruel, powerful, unforgiving force that has waged battle against mankind through the ages. Every day, nature assaults us with storms, earthquakes, famine, and disease. Thus, we're constantly developing new ways of fighting back, conquering nature, and taming it so that we may harness its great and terrible energy.

So with this in mind, what is nature? Friend? Foe? Neither? Both? As humans, do we consider nature to be wild, savage, and untamed, or do we call it our sanctuary? Following a discussion from class, it seems that people's interpretations of nature vary depending on their geographic region, local culture, age, class, religion, and even gender.

Let's take a young child for example. A child who regularly interacts with nature may see the natural world as a place of mystery, adventure, and freedom- far removed from the boring world of adults. According to E.O Wilson is his book titled Biophilia, a large number of children go through a "nature phase", where they venture out into the natural world, explore, investigate, and make their own discoveries based on observation.

Interestingly enough, the way children approach nature is very similar to biologists of various fields. Like children, biologists are curious, fascinated by natural processes, and enamored with the idea of discovering something new.

Let us also not forget that people's views of nature may vary depending on their generation or time period in which they lived. Before cars, communications, or modern industry, nature was much more of a force to be reckoned with, and less of something that needed "saving". Aside for a few budding conservationists such as John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry David Thoreau, who insisted on preserving nature and biodiversity, there was little incentive to protect anything until the 1960's, when the environmental movement kicked off.

So in any case, what are your views of nature?