Wildness Should Exist and Be Protected - Essay Example

Wildness should exist and be protected Environment is wealth, which humans are given by nature. Humans need it much and can’t live without it, but, at the same time many of them try to destroy it. People want to control everything, but this control causes much harm. Wildness should exist and be protected – this is the thesis of two essays, which will be discussed in this work. Jane Goodall is a scientist, who could be given Peace Nobel Prize one day. She carefully traced the principle of interconnection of wildlife and human life and emphasized that humans do not demonstrate enough respect for all the forms of life on the planet.

The necessity of such respect is the thesis of her essay “Respect for Life”. Wildness should exist and be protected. In the essay Jane describes the experience she gained studying chimpanzees. Goodall calls for protection of animals, chimpanzees in particular. She wants all the people to know that these animals are in danger and this danger is caused by the lack of respect for animals. People are too selfish and take care only about themselves and other humans forgetting about other living organisms, which exist on the planet.

The study of chimpanzees proves that they also have the divisions into cultural groups and their way of life is very close to the life of humans. “My thirty years working with chimpanzees has taught me humility: we humans are not after all, set apart, separated from the rest of the animal kingdom by unbridgeable chasm” (Goodall). Goodall not simply states that we should take care about animals, but provides facts based on her valuable experience. She calls not for protection based on sympathy, but for protection based on respect.

Edward Abbey in his Eco-Defense wants to draw attention to threat and offers the ways to overcome it. He provides the list of possible threats and addresses rich individuals asking to defend the wildness. Wildness should exist and be protected. The author presents an example. He asks us to imagine our actions in case if anybody penetrates our house. “If a stranger batters your door down with an axe, threatens your family and yourself with a deadly weapon, and proceeds to loot your home of whatever he wants…” (Abbey).

In this case humans have a right to defend themselves by calling the police, applying to court, etc. There are many ways humans can defend themselves with. But what about the nature? If humans penetrate the Mother Nature’s territory and destroys it, our nature also should have a right to defend itself. The environment is changing and this change causes harm to animals, plants and, consequently to humans. Abbey also reminds about the interconnection between humans and wildness and states that the protection of nature is the protection of humans.

However, according to the author, the nature should be protected not because of the humans’ fear to disappear, but because of the desire to protect wildness based on the understanding its right to have its own life. Works cited Fadiman, Clinton. Living Philosophers. Doubleday; 1st edition, 1990