bill mckibben
In the beginning mckibben talks about going out into the woods everyday and how much he loves just to be out there in the peace and quiet without any human interferences. Then he starts to talk about how people further down in the valley are cutting down trees with chain saws, and when they are doing that it takes away from the environment. Then Mckibben goes on to talk about how we have changed the world so much. We have changed the atmosphere in which has changed to everything within the world; the weather, temperature, rainfall, and wilderness. He says that we have changed it to better ourselves and the way we live and do things, in doing that we have tainted every land on earth no matter how remote it is.
In the next part he talks about how an idea or relationship can become extinct, just as can an animal. He is arguing that “nature” itself is becoming extinct. Humans are the reason that nature is becoming extinct, polluting areas and killing it. Then Mckibben uses an analogy of when stabbing a man with toothpicks you may have thought it would hurt, annoy, degrade his outer body, and yet it would never touch or hurt the vital organs. Yet it does, we as humans tore down woodlands here and there thinking that it wouldn’t hurt, and built factories and houses here and there. Each time we did one of these we were taking away from “nature” as mckibben calls it. He says we never thought that we could hurt it, it was too big and to old to damage.
Then he starts to talk about the gasses that we produce in out pursuit for a better life, a warm house and economic growth. And in this pursuit for a better life, agriculture was so productive and it freed most of us from farming. This gas that we are producing is carbon dioxide. The he goes on to say it “could” alter the power of the sun, it could increase its heat. That could change the patters of moisture and dryness, breed storms in new places, and breed deserts. Then he says those things may have not happened yet but may happen sometime in the future and in creating carbon dioxide we are ending nature. Mckibben talks about the sunlight and the rainfall have not yet ended but they have changed and we are the reason for that change. Mckibben the proceeds to finish his article with another analogy. About the nature and what we have done to it. He starts to talk about how during the summer, he and his wife would ride their bikes down to the lake everyday and just swim across and just enjoy the peace, calm, and the water going over there muscles.