Island Civilization Blog

             In the essay Island Civilization, Roderick Frazier Nash paints many pictures of what the Fourth Millennium could look like. Before he explores the many options of the Fourth Millennium, Nash challenges the reader to reflect on not only the Third Millennium (the current one), but also past millenniums. In Nash’s opinion, humans have greatly contributed to the downfall of the planet Earth, and he believes that at this point there are only four possible outcomes for the next millennium. The four outcomes that Nash thinks could exist for the Fourth Millennium are the wasted scenario, the garden scenario, the future primitive, and the island civilization.

            First, Nash describes, in my opinion, the worst possible outcome of Earth, the wasted scenario. Humans have neglected every other species on the planet and have essentially driven it into the ground. Since everything is basically destroyed, we can either continue to live in this landfill, or travel to another planet to destroy. I think that this could very easily happen to the Earth today. If we as humans aren’t careful and don’t take care of the planet, it will be cluttered before we know it.

            The second scenario is the garden scenario. It describes a world where the human race perfects every weather process or natural thing. In this reality everything revolves around humans and we have complete control over everything. Although it is more efficient than the wasted scenario, I don’t think the garden scenario would work because there is no diversity between organisms. Also, it seems too good to be true for humans.

            The next scenario is called the future primitive. This scenario would happen if the human race completely did away with all the technological advances that we have made in the last ten-thousand years. Some of us would resort back to the hunting and gathering style of survival, while others would fend off for themselves for awhile. I don’t think this scenario would prove productive because it would be doing away with everything we have accomplished so far. All of the innovators and geniuses creations would be lost forever, and their work would be for nothing. Also, I feel that we would eventually invent things we had in the future to make jobs and survival easier.

            Finally, last scenario proposed by Nash fills in very nicely with the title. In the island civilization outcome, humans would find the perfect way to coincide with nature, without destroying or controlling it. Instead of limiting the wilderness, we would limit our expansion as civilization. I feel like this would mean less highways, restaurants, and gas stations outside of the main designated towns. In my opinion, this civilization would work pretty well because nature and humans would live in harmony. The only setback would be the possibility of running out of room to contain the human race.

            In conclusion, all four of the scenarios for the Fourth Millennium proposed by Nash in this essay have their advantages and disadvantages. However, I feel like these situations don’t matter all too much. I think the purpose Nash wrote this essay is to make the reader think and understand that no matter what scenario the Fourth Millennium turns out to fulfill, the only thing we can do right now is take care of the planet we live in.