Into the Wild Nature

There is no doubt that nature has given back to mankind. Everything individuals have anticipated that would continue was given by the ordinary world around us: food, water, medicine, materials for shelter, ect. Individuals, on the other hand, have caused issues that will keep on influencing the nature around us, for example, contamination through the improvement and advancement of technology. So, the real question is do we need nature or does nature need us, because as it seems that nature is a gift that keeps on giving but the individual can be selfish by not realizing the long term effects we conflict upon nature.

Fresh water is a free source that provides the individual with multiple things, such as the ability to travel across the world by boat, go for a swim on a hot summer day, or simply to drink when thirsty. There’s thousands of miles of water on Earth, but according to studies “In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters, polluting the usable water supply” (Girard). Waste is constantly ending up in the oceans, rivers, and lakes all over the world from the individuals not properly disposing of their trash where it’s supposed to be put. Man is benefitted in thousands of ways, but none think of the harm they are doing to nature when they decide to leave their doritos bag on the sand while the waves wash it up or the water bottles they throw in the trash instead of the recycling bin to be reused. In the novel, Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless

Nature has also provided us the ability to access a multitude of life-saving medications, being the ultimate chemist. Nearly half of all human pharmaceuticals now in use were originally derived from natural sources and it states that “Some 50 years later, scientists identified anticancer compounds in the rosy periwinkle, which pharmaceutical heavyweight Eli Lilly subsequently produced for the treatment of leukemia and Hodgkins disease” (Wong). Nature has provided mankind with the power to heal and provide medication to those in need, but once again humans continue to destroy the environment by cutting down the trees and plants that were beneficial to life and science to be able to build new buildings and neighborhoods. “People cut down 15 billion trees each year and the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization” (Worland).

Studies show that humans don’t realize the amount of trees they are cutting down each year. Obviously humans cut down these trees for more reasons but by replacing these sources with new architecture, it enables the trees and plants to be able to regrow in that spot. Therefore, plants that provide humans with medication such as periwinkle or aspirin, won’t be able to flourish and have the ability to produce more of.

Nature is beneficial to the individual not only physically through the resources it provides, but it is also a reliever of stress and allows for a breath of fresh air. It is proven that patients in hospitals with access to view natural scenery show increased recovery rates, had better evaluations from nurses, required fewer pain killers, and had less complications after surgeries compared to those who viewed urban scenes. It is also proven that nature can “clear your head” by helping restore harmony to the brain as a whole. Nature is like a psychologist that provides free therapy, but instead of going outside to manage stress, most people choose to go straight to their electronics. A study found that “more than half of adults reported spending five hours or less in nature each week… Parents of children 8 to 12 years old said that their children spend three times as many hours with computers and televisions each week as they do playing outside” (Digest).                                                   

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