In “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” by William Cronon, WIlliam Cronon argues that argues that preserving wilderness doesn’t necessarily mean that people are respecting it. People are natural beings, and although humanity has evolved to the point of manipulating nature, preserving wilderness takes away from the history of indigenous people that lived harmoniously with nature. Cronon believes that the concept of wilderness “had to become sacred” (9) in order to be idolized. Cronon also repeatedly mentions satan and God when discussing wilderness. The idea that the wilderness is sacred is a very interesting thought to me. At what point do humans exceed nature and are too advanced to partake in it? There is no clear line, and I think that Cronon does an excellent job at pointing out the flaws in the logic by proposing that indigenous history should be studied and celebrated through nature.
Although I do agree with Cronin overall, I disagree that the wilderness is “profoundly a human creation” (2). The wilderness existed long before humanity and although humans came around and altered it, I believe that the wilderness has been shaped based off of what it has been able to provide. What it can provide has shaped how humanity has altered it, which I think proves that nature is ultimately more powerful. Nature could exist without humanity but humanity would stand no chance against nature. It is important to consider indigenous influence on nature and allow humanity to be considered a part of it, but to propose that humanity has power over nature can and has been disproven easily.
Despite my disagreement, Cronon does an excellent job at proposing why nature being sacred does not mean that humanity cannot be a part of it. Humanity was able to survive based on the resources that the wilderness has provided, and evolving into intelligent creatures should not be enough reason to cut the tie between nature and humanity. Despite what may be a controversial take, if I have interpreted it correctly, Cronon’s idea should be discussed in order to have a better idea as to how people should treat their relationship with nature.