Summary and Respone to "Island Civilization" by Roderick Frazier Nash

In the essay Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth, Robert Frazier Nash proposes his plan for the distant fourth millennium. He begins his essay with powerful words on the destructive behavior of humans, stating that since the very beginning humans viewed the wilderness as something that must be controlled. To support his argument, Nash points out that in the Bible the “wilderness” was land cursed by God, and humans were banished there as punishment. He then continues to point out how mankind built fences and roads to contain the wild, and that it was only when the United States Census claimed that there was no longer a frontier left that humans discovered the damage they had caused. Following this revelation the human population sought to right their wrongs in different ways. The government provided relief through the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 and that of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Various authors that supported environmentalism wrote books on things like restricting one’s own freedom for the good of the environment.

After completing his description of how mankind destroyed the wilderness and their scramble to rectify the problem, Nash goes on to explain the 3 possible outcomes for mankind. The first outcome is referred to as the wasteland scenario. In this future the world has exhausted all of its resources and become a desolate wasteland that can support very little life. The garden scenario is the second possible outcome and under it humans will have created technology capable of controlling nature, at the cost of diversity. The final outcome is future primitive. This seems to be a variation of the future Nash would like to see. In this scenario humans would revert back to hunter gatherers and shun technology, allowing the Earth to gradually return to its previous state.

The final pages of Nash’s paper explain his idea for the future. His plan is to restrict the human population to 1.5 billion, and to make self-sustaining “islands” of civilization. These civilizations would be clusters of the population, and quite similar to cities. His plan also relies on advanced technology that would not harm the Earth and that the “islands” remain isolated from each other. All food production, manufacturing, sanitation, and other services would take place directly within the civilization.

I personally believe that Nash’s plan for an island utopia sounds wonderful, but is not even close to being realistic. My first major problem with his plan is the reduction of the population. He proposes cutting the current population to 1.5 billion. In order for something like this to happen only a fourth of the current population would be allowed to reproduce one time. Most people want a family, and a family includes children. If you start denying three fourths of the world the right to have a child, you’re going to have a major problem. Any attempt to limit the world wide population through regulations will undoubtedly end in violence and destruction. Thankfully regulation on such a large scale would be impossible.

Another problem I have with this utopia stems from the reduced population. One of the results of a population that has been limited over a short time is a smaller gene pool. People would begin to look very similar, and soon diversity would be almost nonexistent amongst humans. In addition to this reduction in diversity, a small gene pool also leaves the human population very vulnerable. Any sort of viral epidemic could wipeout the human race, simply because immunity would be unlikely. If you don’t believe an epidemic is capable of killing so many, just take a look at our history. Scientists estimate that smallpox killed around 1 billion people, and there is still no cure for the disease. The best scientists could do was create a vaccine. Another epidemic that you are probably familiar with is the black plague, which killed at least a third of the European population.

It is also suggested that a person would be able to live in the “island” of their choosing. This can only result in conflict over who would get to live where. You could base it on social status, but then you create class warfare. Those that were less fortunate might attack another more fortunate civilization. This would only lead to more destruction of the environment.

In short, Nash’s dream world sounds amazing. It is an island of peace and happiness. Who wouldn’t want to have all the resources you need within a 100 mile radius? Unfortunately it is nothing more than an unobtainable dream, and any attempt to make it a reality will result in more chaos.