Paper 1 Response to Wilson

MC 111

Nicole Bleser

The status of the environment has progressively gotten worse as the development of humans

has expanded across the Earth. Within Wilson’s piece, A Biologist’s Manifesto for Preserving Life on

Earth,  he proposes the idea that humans should put aside 50% percent of the Earth into a reserve.

While this idea to leave half of the Earth to nature would lead to positive impacts on the environment, it

may also lead to many social and economic issues, such as displacement, and further separating the gap

between poor and rich. The Earth is a necessity for life for humans, which makes the condition of the

environment a topic of which should be important to all humans. Though many people would disagree

that the environment comes second to the affairs of humans, by preserving nature only to keep supplies

available for use. Wilson’s disagreement with this idea is an important one to consider since he states

that “The biosphere does not belong to us; we belong to it.” (Wilson Sec. 3), showing that humans need

to take care of the Earth to receive anything positive from it. Wilson’s ideas of conservation are positive

and so is his 50% plan, but the logistics of it would cause potential issues for humanity.

             To begin, we must acknowledge the details of how this plan will be approached as well as what

effects this will cause. Conservation would protect humans from the collapse of the environment, but

protections only last as long as they are also economically beneficial. Since the rationale behind

conservations is often economics there is “One basic weakness... is that most members of the land

community have no economic value” (Leopold, 2020). This is shown to be true within conservation of

any size, whether it be a species or an entire biotic community. In order to protect 50% of the Earth’s

environment, we must first decide where is being protected, which would be more than likely made up

of an area that will provide economic prosperity in one way or another. Through this way of thinking, we

are prioritizing certain parts of nature and would be entirely losing the rest of it.

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             Continuing, another loss that would have to be faced is the loss of land for many indigenous

peoples as well as third world countries. First world countries are majorly past the point of conservation

since it has already been taken over as developed space for humans. As we can see through history,

early conservationists, such as John Muir, often prioritized the environment over any person of color.

For example, Muir “was more concerned with human perfidy toward bears (“Poor fellows, they have

been poisoned, trapped, and shot at until they have lost confidence in brother man”) than with how

Native Americans had been killed and driven from their homes.” (Purdy, 2015) Thus, showing that even

in conservation which is supposed to benefit the Earth it is instead disproportionately benefitting the

white man, especially those of which with wealth.

             Next, you must think about who would agree to put this plan into motion as well as who has the

power. Though the plan has many benefits, as long as it doesn’t mean continuous economic benefits, no

one would move to enact it. Across the world, people often dislike the government having complete

control over them, which leads to the question, what happens if people do not want to move? Many

people would not want to be displaced into highly crowded areas, the economic benefits would majorly

favor the rich, and you would need worldwide agreement. People would much rather ignore the

problem until it gets worse, rather than find a solution for it now. On the other hand, the general idea

behind the plan does support the idea that “The universe would be incomplete without man; but it

would also be incomplete without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our

conceitful eyes and knowledge.” (Muir, 1916) By putting the economic and social priorities of humans on

hold, we would be able to positively impact the environment for our futures by not interfering with it.

             Finally, Wilson’s plan would be foolproof to help the environment, but the effects on the

economy as well as the displacement of every human within the 50% of land being reserved, keeps this

plan from being realistic. The effects of this wouldn’t economically benefit anyone, since the land would

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be for reservation and not for use or tourism. As long as the nation’s economy is improving, many

people do not care enough to do anything about the environment since they believe it isn’t currently

affecting them personally. The plan itself would do the job it entails by helping all species across all

environments thrive, but the effects it would cause socially are too large to risk.

Word Count- 798

References
Leopold, A. (2020). A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There. Oxford University Press.

Muir, J. (1916). Man's Place in the Universe. In J. Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf.

Purdy, J. (2015). Environmentalism's Racist History. The New Yorker.