Human Relationship With Nature Essay

Humankind’s relationship with nature is not only long and complex, but has changed greatly as man’s presence and reach grows exponentially. Man has always been at odds with nature, and has seen it as a symbol of man’s limits and constraints, a visible sign of humankind’s failure to spread its ideologies and increase his grasp. Nature was the unknown, unseen adversary, who man has been in an eternal battle for his God-given place in the world. For much of humankind’s existence, man could do little harm to nature 's overpowering control over the world, but through recent technological advances, man has started to gain the upper hand in his eternal battle with nature. Driven by his need for progress and production, man has looked past nature’s essential, ultimate beauty, to only see nature as an obstacle in the way of advancement and civilization; which has led to man’s

During the early stages of civilization, man considered nature to be an unconquerable adversary, however, as time went on nature became exploitable through technological advancements and man’s own need to conquer the unknown. The attitude that nature is to be exploited causes many people who are in the business to “look through, rather that at” nature and the resources it provides for us. (Wilderness and the American Mind). The motivation to exploit nature is not purely to conquer the once impenetrable barrier that is natural world around us, rather, it is to construct different types of infrastructure and to overall improve people’s lives. Nature impedes human progress so land developers and capitalists have decided that it is more efficient to not only regard nature as a nuisance, but to also make the decision that man can better progress without undeveloped nature. In the painting “View