In the novel The Hot Zone, Richard Preston tells terrifying stories about the Ebola virus. Throughout the nonfiction book, Preston presents a recurring theme about how nature impacts the course of human evolution. Humans and nature have been in a constant state of war since the beginning of time. Humans often overstep, and when they do, nature puts humanity back in its place. Richard Preston’s stance on nature is correct in saying that humans are parasites that are infecting the earth, and the earth is fighting back in response, because of evidence that is shown throughout history. Throughout history, humanity has been tipping the balance towards their side. From the first wave of the industrial revolution to the modern days, the environment has …show more content…
The overexploitation of Earth’s resources is a prime example of this. When people mine excessively, this shows how they tend to prioritize short-term self gains over the preservation of ecosystems. Also, industrialization and irresponsible waste disposal contributes to pollution which can affect the water, air, and soil quality. And pollution doesn’t just affect humans either; it endangers other species and ecosystems. There is also something to be said about the so-called “consumerism culture” which is the excess production of goods, thus leading to increased waste of resources. In response to humanity’s misuse of resources, nature created natural disasters, which devastated places it hit. It is a way for nature to demonstrate that it has ultimate control, and humans can’t do anything about it. Nature can destroy man’s creations with ease, and that is demonstrated with natural disasters. Nature isn’t so defenseless against humanity. Nature devised a plan to restore the balance, and kill the parasite that has attached itself to
Jared Diamond may be correct in that human activities have caused environmental issues that irreparable. The thing that is missing from this book, was the individual position. The book goes into explanations on how societies as a whole make the decision to impact the environment, when in reality it is the individuals who make the choices and influence those around themselves. What is intriguing is that Jared Diamond not only talks about the mismanagement of environment or the natural destruction of environment, he focuses on how human culture and beliefs influenced the mismanagement. It is very appropriate to engage into the rationalization of why events or the mismanagement occurred. Understanding that hunters and gatherers had to fail in one civilization otherwise there would be no need to enter into the agricultural era. From reading this book, one might find it oddly frightening that the environment is in peril because of personal action. The ideology that this book presents works in a way that it gets people thinking if their way of living is best for the society or if it is slowly, but gradually destroying the
It is easy to deny the reality that the state of the environment plays a large role in the survival of society. People who argue to protect and preserve it are seen as “hippies” or “tree huggers” and discarded by society. On the other hand, those who support deforestation are seen as “killing us all.” This conflict that is often portrayed on modern media is actually one that span all the way back to the beginning of civilization. Jared Diamond, recipient of the Lewis Thomas Prize and physiology professor at UCLA School of Medicine, his essay “Why do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions” published by Edge on April 26, 2003, argues exactly how societies can doom themselves. Diamond creates his own roadmap as to how and why problems occur. He shows the various ways of how a problem may arise and be
In Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone” there is the overarching theme which is that nature is a power that dwarfs the achievements and power that humans possess. This lends to the consideration that humans should strive to understand the viruses and diseases that nature “throws” at the human race. Preston uses gruesome imagery, and characterization to persuade the reader to take the direction of overcoming the viruses and horrors of nature through research to better society.
In the New York Times interview of Richard Preston, the well renowned author of The Hot Zone, is conducted in order to shed some light on the recent Ebola outbreak and the peaked re-interest in his novel. The Hot Zone is articulated as “thriller like” and “horrifying.” Preston uses similar diction and style choices corresponding with his novel. By choosing to use these specific methods he is advertising and promoting The Hot Zone to the audience members that are interested in reading, and reaching out to those who read and enjoyed his novel. He continuously grabs and keeps the reader’s attention by characterizing and personifying Ebola as the “enemy [and] the invisible monster without a face” in order to give the spectators something to grasp and understand the Ebola virus. Along with characterization, Preston uses descriptions with laminate
The Hot Zone is a true story about how the knowledge of the Ebola virus was first developed and the background behind it. The Ebola virus kills nine out of ten of its victims and it kills quickly and painfully. It is extremely contagious and the blood and vomit the victim lets out can spread the virus quickly. The Hot Zone goes into detail of the experience of getting to the bottom of the Ebola Virus.
“The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus” by Richard Preston presents the true story of Ebola’s origin’s in an entertaining yet realistic manner. Preston does a fantastic job introducing the reader to Ebola and Marburg, their transmission routes, symptoms, and how research is done in Hot Labs.
The need to control nature is a human instinct that has done more harm than...
The Ebola Virus is an extremely deadly virus found in Africa. There have been multiple outbreaks across Africa and one in the United States. The Ebola virus basically causes uncontrollable bleeding externally and internally. Then your organs become liquefied. This usually results in death(www.encyclopedia.com). The following report contains info on the characteristics and history of the Ebola Virus.
The Ebola Virus Ebola is a virus and part of the negative-stranded RNA family known as filovirus. It was discovered in 1976 in Africa and was named after a river in Zaire. When the virus is looked at under an electron microscope, the filoviridae appear to be long, thin and occasionally they have 'branches' sprouting from one place or another. Ebola can also take the form of a U or a B. There are four known strains of the virus; they are Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Reston and Ebola Tai. Ebola Reston only causes disease in monkeys, but the rest of them take approximately 8 hours to duplicate itself.
The Ebola virus was discovered in 1976. It has four strains, each from a different geographic area, but all give their victims the same painful, often lethal symptoms.
Thesis Statement: The deadly virus Ebola is killing thousands of innocent people world wide, but there are some simple steps that are being taken to prevent this coming tide of death.
One of the current major concerns in the world is the outbreak of Ebola. Ebola is a infectious disease that comes from the Ebola virus and it can cause death if the patient is left untreated. The disease can be managed with treatment of the patient, however. Ebola is a disease that is a major concern in the Subsaharan African Realm, and in the North American Realm,but it is beginning to be dealt with sufficiently in the Northern American Realm.
Unfortunately, however not only do we rely on our environment for nourishment, but we take it for granted, despite the fact that “nature is the ministry of men”, tailored to our every need (Emerson). The ground provides a place to walk and sleep, the trees a source of shelter, and lakes sources of water. How do humans respond to this benevolence? With greed and insolence. Author Joy Williams, describes it accurately when explaining how humans just “want and want and want and want”, consumed with the need for “vanities and a quest of self-fulfillment”. Despite being aggressive in her tone, Williams has a point. Even society tells us to keep working harder and never be satisfied, and through this mentality our species has built massive cities and developed unthought of technologies. What is ignored, however, is the person forced to deal with the repercussions of these wants and vanities; Mother Nature. Releasing the billions, yes billions, tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, is slowly suffocating her, whereas, putting pesticides on our crops to increase their yield is poisoning her and killing ingenious bugs in the process. Making the situation even worse, furthermore, is the fact that all of the pain and damage we have forced onto nature is avoidable. One example, highlighted by Williams in her essay, delves into the life of shrimpers. For every pound of
Humans are destructive. Not a lot of us think about how what we do affects the world around us. We almost act like we are the only ones on this planet. We go around polluting and destroying our world with no regard for our actions. The things that live out in the wild are paying the price for it. Every day that passes there is another animal or plant that is placed on an endangered list. This is happening at an alarming rate. Because of man’s desire to expand and conquer their surroundings, there are animals and plants that are on the brink of extinction that will not be around for our kids and future generations to enjoy if something is not done about it now. This problem has been going on for hundreds of years. There are animals and plants that can only been seen in paintings or early photography. It is because of our early ancestors that we have this problem today and we have to do more to prevent more animals and plants from disappearing forever.
In almost all cases, the environment does triumph over man in some way or another. “To Build a Fire,” by Jack London is a prime example of this happening to a large extent. A man and his dog are lost in the wilderness at sub-zero temperatures, and he is not only involved in an environmental conflict, but a struggle to live. Eventually the man dies of hypothermia. Again, this is another instance that illustrates the power that nature has over us.