Preserving the Wilderness

Paper Summary:

Our entire society is governed by consumerism and competition and in order for our economy to thrive, our appetite for prosperity must continually grow. The paper argues that it is for this very reason that we must take wilderness protection very seriously. As a commercial society we are dependant on our abundance of natural resources and our common wealth of public land to fuel our ever-growing population. The paper argues that even if the average person never visits a pristine forest, their quality of life is seriously affected by its preservation.

Paper Outline:
Introduction
Why Protect Wilderness?
Wilderness as a Resource
Biodiversity
Wilderness as a Laboratory
The Arctic Refuge; An Urgent Risk
Conclusion
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"Perhaps a fundamental importance of wilderness lies in its ability to provide a basis for understanding the effects of our current land-use practices. Wilderness offers us "an ecological laboratory" (Miller, 199) where it is possible to examine nature as it was meant to function. Multiple use approaches to land management and other attempts at conservation may well be practical solutions towards preserving wilderness. However, without being able to compare our practices to an area of land that has not been managed or disturbed, it would be almost impossible to judge the difference. In addition, the National Resource Defiance Council, or NRDC, claims that half of our public lands are home to endangered or threatened species. Unspoiled wilderness provides a habitat in which both nature and evolution can progress without disruption."

More papers on Preserving the Wilderness:

• Analytical Essay # 112420 : "The Wilderness Act of 1964"
• Book Review # 29901 : "Wilderness and the American Mind"
• Analytical Essay # 55270 : "The Abstract Wild"

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