Island Civilization

            Island Civilization: a vision for human occupancy of Earth is author Roderick Frazier Nash’s explanation of the crisis Earth will face if no changes are made between this the Third Millennium and the future Fourth Millennium. This essay also contains a more important proposal from Nash. He illuminates the reader on his strategy to preserve human life and opportunity, as well as spare the other life forms of Earth and allow them to reach their full evolutional potential.

            Nash builds up to his proposal by reviewing the meaning of wilderness, and how humans have perceived the wild throughout history. He described the American movement west that began with early pioneers. Here the question was asked, “When does success in too great a dose produce failure?” (Nash 373) Gaining land and expanding into the unknown was brave, and seemed powerful. Automatically it was associated with progress, development, and success. Nash projects another valid point to combat the typical cry of land equaling power. More than once in his essay Nash made the point that, “Growth was confused with progress.” (376) Earlier in the essay he expounded on this saying, “We always thought of growth as synonymous with progress, but maybe bigger is not better if it creates a civilization that is unsustainable.” (373) To many people this is a new concept. The desire to conquer and tame new lands dates back to early times. Perhaps all the best advancements and progress of mankind can be made in a small area, while allowing other species to flourish. Nash views the population as it is today as unsustainable, which if nothing changes in the future, it will be.

            “The fact is that we’ve been horrible roommates in the earth household.” (377) This is an unarguable observation from Nash. Humans have pushed far into the natural environment, leaving few if any places of our Earth untouched. Many species have been pushed to the brink of extinction through rapid human expansion and advancement. Preserving planet Earth will require a change in the future. As Nash explains, there are multiple scenarios that predict the future of Earth looking into the Fourth Millennium. Some include the wasteland scenario, the garden scenario, and the future primitive scenario. Nash’s vision for the Fourth Millennium is a plan he calls Island Civilization. Nash defined it as, “clustering on a planetary scale,” where “Boundaries are drawn around the human presence, not around wilderness.” (377) This is a plan to convert the Earth from a civilization with “wild islands,” to a civilization as, “an island on a wild Earth.” (379) Nash proposes small civilizations around the Earth, leaving the majority untouched and uninterrupted by humans. However, this plan would “end the idea of integrating our civilization into nature.” (377) Additionally, Nash admits that there would be “compromises with human freedom.” (377) To be viable, Island Civilization would need massive improvements in technology. While time is on the side of Nash, he is depending on a few intellectual leaders to create ways to join the islands and future civilizations. Nash also proposed that to make Island Civilization work, there would have to be a sharp decline in the population; a decline that would cut the population into less than half of the people on Earth today.

Ideally Island Civilization would, “permit human beings to realize their cultural and technological potential while safeguarding the same right of self-realization for all the other beings.” (379) I applaud Nash for his creative proposal. He is thinking in new ways, which will be necessary if we are to sustain the population of Earth in the future. I do not feel that his plan would gain much support from the general population, as he places the environment and other species at the same rank as humans. Humans would have to sacrifice their freedoms to allow the environment to freely evolve. Under Island Civilization, humans would not be maximizing their resources or reaching their full potential.