I found The End of Nature by Bill McKibben very enjoyable mostly because I strongly agreed with the philosophy of the author, and I found many of his thoughts and ideas either stimulating or similar to my own. At many points in the book, it felt as though I was reading my own thoughts in different words. Bill Mckibben includes many anecdotes of his own experiences in the great outdoors. He writes of “[hiking] up the hill out [his] back door” and having the woods “swallow [him] up with “nothing to remind [him] of human society,” only for the “snarl of a chain saw” to eventually fill his ears, bringing him back to the world of man. I have had similar experiences walking along the Moore ravine towards the Evergreen Brickworks. There is a small stretch of off-trail area along the ravine where people seldom walk, where I feel as though I have escaped humanity. It is peaceful and humbling; I feel like a small part of nature instead of a dominating force. But if I continue to walk I am eventually met by the sounds of cars speeding along the DVP, and my temporary sanctuary no longer exists. A common theme in the book was that man had become so powerful that there was nowhere unaffected by our actions. The author and I both experience this in our attempts to go back to nature, only to find that there is no real nature left. There is a statement in the book that had a big impact on me: “We have deprived nature of its independence and that is fatal to its meaning. Nature’s independence is its meaning; without it there is nothing but us.” This statement evokes feelings of isolation, hopelessness, but it is the best way to describe the current environmental situation from a philosophical standpoint. I have always found myself drawn to nature, and connected to earth. And with this connection comes great sorrow because I can feel the earth not only dying, but being killed by us. And even the nature that is left, is not truly nature, but a human induced alternative.This book provided me with some consolation because it let me know that I was not alone in being affected by the decay of the natural world for a reason other than anthropocentricism. Mckibben also mentioned ideas about “deep ecology” and “[believing] in the rainforest for its own sake,” and the “Gaia hypothesis” formulated by James Lovelock arguing that “the planet Earth is not simply an ‘environment’ for ‘life’, but in fact a living organism.” I had not previously heard of this hypothesis, but I have thought of similar ideas. It was nice to be reminded that there are other people who see the Earth as a living thing in itself, and not just something to provide humans with what is necessary for our survival.
One final idea that was mentioned throughout the book was that by humans “ending nature as an independent force,” we put ourselves “forever in the deity business.” Our CO2 emissions have changed the atmosphere and the weather. Genetic engineering gives us the tools to manipulate life into something that is not quite life. Humans have “in a sense, [turned] out to be God’s equal-or at least, his rival-able to destroy creation.” You don’t have to believe in God in order to appreciate the impact of these statements. Man has separated himself from nature and taken control of it. We have become God even if there was no God before us. I can’t speak for all of humanity, but I personally don’t want to play the role of God. I don’t want to decide which species deserve to be saved, and which can go extinct. I don’t want to affect the climate or manipulate life with genetic engineering. I feel as though I do not have the right to do these things. These are the jobs of a nature I am a part of, not a controller of. But with the end of nature and the beginning of the human-God complex, will anything survive? The fate of the world does not look promising.
Mckibben finished the book with the statement “the comfort we need is inhuman,” referring to finding comfort in the stars; worlds beyond our own. Although I will not give up on the Earth, sometimes it is nice to look up and know that there is a vast universe that has not been and will never be tainted by humanity.
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