Nature and Culture

Chapter 20 in the Ecology of Eden focuses on the connection between nature and culture. English landscape gardeners saw all of nature as a garden because in a sense all of nature was created or altered by humans. I completely agree with this statement because there is no longer such a thing as wilderness that has not been touched by humans. Humans have altered every part of nature through direct and indirect means. Another topic brought up by this chapter was that early American settlers believed that there was enough nature in America that they would never run out. I believe that this is still the viewpoint of many Americans because if one does not pay attention to the consequences of their actions, then they will not realize how badly nature is affected by human influence. Humans are very guilty of using nature for their own benefit and not thinking about how it could affect later generations that will live on this earth. Could humans have become such an intelligent species without the exploitation of nature?

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