Nature Essay : My Nature : The Nature Of Nature

This may be due to cultural naivety or possibly just failure to recognize the interconnectedness of culture and nature. Society’s lack of recognition towards this is summarized by K. Milton when he states “Nature is seen as separate from the processes and products of human activity.” (Milton, pg 124). This is where the rift in modern day environmentalism is formed, a rift that can clearly be seen in issues such as the Northern Gateway Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline protests. In both of these instances, First Nations are fighting for the rest of society to see the value that their culture places on the environment. To them, environmentalism isn’t just about saving the nature we as humans continue to destroy, but rather it’s about appreciating what is in front of us and placing value on the land that goes beyond economic

Prior to diving into the many new insights that can be comprehended while viewing history through a natural lense, it is important to define nature in this context. While man is technically a creation of nature, and therefore nature himself, he shall be excluded from this brief definition of what composes nature. Here, nature will be considered everything living or otherwise on this earth that is not a creation or product of humanity. All other creatures and parts of the environment are to be considered nature.

First, it felt slightly odd to read about a city other than New York City in a Macaulay Seminar class because most, if not all, readings I have read in such a class discuss a topic in the context of New York City; nevertheless, reading about Chicago, another major American city, and its comparison with St. Louis, were refreshing. Second, this is the first time that I was exposed to the “first nature vs. second nature” concept, which I found insightful and somewhat surprising. I began to ruminate on the aspects of New York City people assume natural that are in fact artificial. Immediately, the salt marshes near the John F. Kennedy airport in Queens came to mind. According to NYC Parks, the marshes serve to “absorb fertilizer, improve water quality, and reduce erosion,” which can be considered as, using Cronon’s phrase, “natural advantages.” However, they have clearly been positioned and altered in a way that is aesthetically pleasing. In this instance, the presence of human intervention exists, yet many people would be inclined to consider the park “natural.” Perhaps this is how people in the 19th century viewed the railroads. Lastly, the following questions might be worth discussing: in today’s world, given the prolific human activity, what is considered first nature and second nature? Can there even be a third nature or

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

The dictionary defines nature not only as “the material world, especially as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities,” but also as “the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.” Meaning that nature is any and everything that surrounds us. Nature is the entirety as a whole; the universe, the planets, the stars. To be a human is to be a spiritual person as a human coexisting with your surroundings. To be human is to be a small part something greater — the never ending cycle of life and human experience that creates the foundation of our

Mother Nature has a value that cannot be measured nor quantified, it is on a playing field of their own. The environment around every human on earth, provides every necessity to sustain life. Nature provides food, shelter, and even entertainment to all its member. Although there significant challenges that arise when trying to survive in certain environments, the environment should not be destroyed just to make it easier thrive in. Nature is the ultimate provider for all organisms on earth, but there are those people that try and take advantage of nature's gifts. Due to greed for money and power, people mine the earth and destroy the entire environment. The way the earth and its environment is treated in completely disrespectful. The environment does have intrinsic

The other two readings pretty much encourage humanity to what they want with “nature” to improve society as a whole. What is meant by the term to use “nature” is to use “natural” resources such as trees, water, or animals to name a few in ways to be made into something else that is deemed beneficial in some way. The most common example would have to be trees turned into paper products. “Nature” is described as what one’s landscape is, this could be a savanna or a concrete building while “natural” in its purest form is described as wildlife that has been untouched by humanity for as far as the eye can see. The purpose in which it is used is to show if humans have advanced the “nature” or simply left it alone. It is also used to show how humanity has progressed through time through inventions and changes in the landscape. What is at stake for those who are using the terms all depends on whether they look at those terms with a positive or negative

The people of this world are always building and expanding cities and towns. People are cutting down trees and leaving they lay. I think that the human population as a whole has messed up the perfection of nature/society. There is only so much land on this planet. The more that we expand cities the less land there is for nature. Before long the human population is going to be enormous and the nature and animal kingdom are going to be all but gone. If we want to sit out on our porch and take walks through nature we the people are going to have to realize what we are doing to nature. Nature is a beautiful thing and it doesn’t need our help to make it

Nature is the most important and essential part of life for every living thing from plants to animals to humans. Nature is the natural environment in which it surrounds us, cares for us and nourishes us at every moment of our lives. Nature has been a part of the Earth and life since the beginning of time. Every form of nature is very powerful which has the ability to nourish, but as well as destroy us. Although nature has been adapted into our daily lives, it isn’t something anyone ever really cares about. Many people have taken nature for granted and have never really took the time to understand what nature is really all about, which is why many poets and authors took their time to write about the beauty of nature and what it is really all about. One author who took his time to understand about what nature is really all about and lived within nature for two years, is a man known as Henry David Thoreau. As time passes, Thoreau felt a need to be a part of nature and understand what it truly means. As he begins his “personal experiment”, Thoreau writes a famous story known as “Walden”. This story was documented from when Thoreau first moved to a land owned by Emerson and built a cabin by the Walden Pond. From there on out, Thoreau tried living essentially throughout nature and studied while being there for more over two years. Through the use of imagery, simile, and aphorism, Thoreau reveals that the values of nature is that everyone should enjoy their life and accomplish as

In life we are all confronted with the idea of nature along with society. Although both have their pros and cons they work together to give us freedom and order among individuals.

Nature is more of a genetic inheritance or information encoded in people’s genes, which they carry throughout their life. Several things in an individual are genetically inherited. This can include: eye color, risks for certain diseases, height, and even talents. The concept of nature, therefore,

Steven Kellert, in his book Building for Life, starts off by echoing David Orr, saying that “the current environmental crisis is considered a design failure rather than an unavoidable aspect of modern life.” He continues on to identify his main point: “Our primary focus is how the experience of nature as a normal aspect of people’s everyday lives at home, work, or play, or in their neighborhoods and communities, affects their basic health and well-being.” Kellert establishes nature’s benefits to people’s daily lives. After explaining the benefits and shortcomings of various experiences of nature (direct, indirect and vicarious), Kellert describes how people can “harmonize…the natural and human built environments through changes in how we design and develop our increasingly urban world.” He describes this through the concept of restorative environmental design, which includes Low Environmental Impact Design and Biophilic Design. Low environmental impact design concerns the “avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating the adverse effects of building and landscape development on natural systems and human health.” Biophilic design, building upon the work done through low environmental impact design, “encompasses two basic dimensions: organic (or naturalistic) design and vernacular (or place-based) design.” Within architecture, Kellert defines organic design as “building shapes and forms that directly, indirectly, or symbolically elicit a human affinity for natural features and processes.” About vernacular design, Kellert writes that “a critical aspect of restorative environmental design is buildings and constructed landscapes that connect to the places they occur…vernacular design…[is] the tailoring of the built environment to the particular physical and cultural places where people live and work.” Kellert defends the need for placed-based architecture, writing that “without vernacular connections to the culture and ecology of place, buildings and

As for the definition of “nature”, western definition of nature is in its literal meanings embodied in wildness e.g. natural landscape and wild things, which is intact from human interventions, while unlike Western culture’s definition of nature, Chinese traditional culture emphasizes the coexistence between human and nature.

What is nature? The answer to that question is different on not only a cultural basis but also on a person-to-person basis. When many people are confronted with people of different viewpoints or opinions on a particular subject they often have the desire to conform that person’s options to their own. This creates a binary way of thinking. You either agree or disagree. This binary really is not affective however especially when discussing the topic of what is nature or what is natural. We all have different connotations attached to the word nature.

For me, falling in love with Nature and the study of the environment was gradual, unexpected, and irrevocable. Our story was the realization of having been in love with an old friend all along, and suddenly, upon revelation, everything else falling into place. My Aha moment came at a seemingly insignificant time; although, upon retrospect, there were admittedly a number of signs prior. It was in my final year in High School as I was sitting in my German class, just like any other day. I often looked out the window at the Ginko tree next to the building, and the grassy field around it, which has since been replaced by a new building to accommodate the ever increasing numbers of new students. My mind was wandering outdoors, where I could