Roderick Nash is a history and environmental studies professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. Nash is the first person to descend the
Tuolumne RiverThe Tuolumne River in the U.S. state of California flows nearly from the central Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Beginning at almost in elevation in Yosemite National Park, the river flows west through deep canyons before spilling into the foothills of the Sierra...
(using a raft).
Nash received his
Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
and his
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
from the
University of Wisconsin–MadisonThe University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. He is the author of several book and many essays. His dissertation, done under the direction of
Merle CurtiMerle Eugene Curti was a leading American historian. His specialty was social and intellectual history. He founded three academic disciplines—peace studies, intellectual history and social history—and helped create cliometrics as a tool in historical research.-Life:Merle Eugene Curti was born in...
, became what has come to be seen as one of the foundational texts of the field of
environmental historyEnvironmental history is the study of humans and nature and their past interrelationships.Environmental historians base their understanding of human and nature relations primarily on historical methodology, but often borrow from the work of scientists and scholars in fields outside of history...
.
Roderick Nash is a history and environmental studies professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. Nash is the first person to descend the
Tuolumne RiverThe Tuolumne River in the U.S. state of California flows nearly from the central Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Beginning at almost in elevation in Yosemite National Park, the river flows west through deep canyons before spilling into the foothills of the Sierra...
(using a raft).
Scholarly biography
Nash received his
Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
and his
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
from the
University of Wisconsin–MadisonThe University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. He is the author of several book and many essays. His dissertation, done under the direction of
Merle CurtiMerle Eugene Curti was a leading American historian. His specialty was social and intellectual history. He founded three academic disciplines—peace studies, intellectual history and social history—and helped create cliometrics as a tool in historical research.-Life:Merle Eugene Curti was born in...
, became what has come to be seen as one of the foundational texts of the field of
environmental historyEnvironmental history is the study of humans and nature and their past interrelationships.Environmental historians base their understanding of human and nature relations primarily on historical methodology, but often borrow from the work of scientists and scholars in fields outside of history...
. After witnessing a massive oil spill in
Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the west coast, between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the sea, and having a Mediterranean climate, it is called California's...
in 1969 he and a number of other faculty members became active within the University and founded an environmental studies program there. Since the initial 12 graduates in 1972, there have been 4,000 graduates within 300 separate majors. Nash is a firm believer in environmental education and is also an avid white-water river rafter.
Wilderness and the American Mind
Nash's study in this book concerns the attitude of American's toward the idea of wilderness. He discusses the different attitudes that humans have toward nature. While
wildernessWilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
– in a strictly physical sense – has provided for the mass of the American economy; wilderness as a philosophical concept has provided America something to rally for and against, to harness and to allow be “untrammeled”. While wilderness has always had a love/hate relationship with civilization Nash states that if wilderness is to survive, we must, ironically, manage wilderness – at the very least, our behavior towards the wilderness must be managed.
Nash presents America’s anthropocentric view as the main enemy to all wilderness preservation. While an ecocentric view is ideal and may work in the long run Perhaps the preservation of nature and wilderness for the sake of holding resources out for the preservation of (our own) species would be more salient – even this is hard for people to grasp, to reach outside the present and look to the future. Maybe the simple preservation of the environment for the sake of our own generation’s recreation and health (oxygen sinks, etc.) could cause enough emotional stir to stow some profiteering.
Nash also talks of how wilderness teaches us the value of humility. The problem is that humanity do not want to be humbled. Humans are a proud species which will do anything to defy being humbled. To this end, we have ripped the wildness from the wilderness and removed all that causes any threat to our existence.
Nash, who retired to Santa Barbara, California, after a 30-year career as a professor of history and environmental studies, believes that humankind has two choices in the next 1,000 years. We can "trash the planet into a wasteland" or adopt a plan to distill the world's population in 500 "islands" while allowing wilderness to flourish around us.
Ethics
Nash's book "The Rights of Nature" is an important work in the field of environmental ethics.
External links