Island Civilization Response

In his essay Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium Dr. Robert Nash proposes a theory that he believes will help solve the growing environmental crises as well as help improve the interactions between Homo Sapiens and planet Earth. Dr. Nash’s theory consists of multiple high density “cities” that house large numbers of people in a small, confined area. These miniature metropolises would be completely independent of one another, both economically and physically, mirroring the once great city states of ancient Greece. By doing this he believes that the major problems of today’s society (lack of resources, war, etc…) will be finally put to rest. Currently humans are populating Earth at an alarming rate. We as a species have grown in numbers exponentially over the last 100 years. As the finite resources of planet Earth are drained we are left with a question, “does Earth have a carrying capacity?” Recent studies show that the global average temperature of Earth is warming. We, as a species, have managed to alter the climate of our own environment. It is only recently that legislation has been passed to reduce the environmental impact of our interactions with the planet. Dr. Nash also addresses the common misconception of what is “wild.” If you go and sample a random group of people by asking them what wilderness is, you would hear similar answers describing land that is uninhabited by humans and where wild animals live. While this is not necessarily incorrect the actual meaning of wilderness is land that is not controlled. The islands of human population proposed by Dr. Nash are just one of many proposals that could help restore Earth to its wild state, completely cutting human ties to the rest of the world and once again letting the wilderness that we once controlled take over.

            Dr. Nash’s idea for island civilizations has many good components. By severing mankind’s ties with nature we would be letting the indigenous fauna of Earth once again reign supreme, freeing them of their current repressed state. The island civilizations would also help reduce global pollution. By reducing the amount of pollutants released into the atmosphere the environment of earth would eventually stabilize and life would become more sustainable. The Island State proposal also has some problems. By confining large amounts of people in a small space the likelihood of violence increases. Research shows that rats, when forced to live in a confined space, become more violent towards one another, resulting in fights and even death. The fantasy of the end of war and world peace is also virtually unattainable. When Dr. Nash compares the futuristic island super cities to the self-sufficient city states of ancient Greece he fails to mention that the Greeks often waged war amongst themselves, fighting for one city state’s supremacy over the others. While the island model eliminates want for land from the causes of these wars it is impossible to predict whether each city will remain at peace with its neighbors. Dr. Nash also lacks explaining what kind of governing body each Island would have and how the islands would be governed as a whole, a problem that remains to be unanswered today. By being completely resource independent the government may resemble that of modern Communist states where wealth is supposed to distributed evenly. Unfortunately this rarely happens due to theft and corruption of high ranking officials, which has caused most modern communist governments to fail. I believe that Dr. Nash’s proposal of Island civilizations would help restore the Earth to the wilderness it was before human habitation, but it would not be long until human greed exceeded the boundaries of these isolated capsules and the Island system would fail.