This was one of the first readings that we had to read that did not focus on plants or trees. It was refreshing yet still slightly morbid to learn about different ways that humans have destroyed the environment – now focusing on New York City’s water. The author seems to highly advocate the belief that all of our ecological issues are attributed to the Europeans who first settled in New York. How else would New York City uphold the reputation it does now if the Europeans had not barged in and drained the wetlands for cropland and later industrial purposes? Without this deforestation and draining, New York City would not be at its technological and financial advancement. However, I do believe that the Europeans initiatives were too aggressive.
It was extremely surprising to read that New York used to have a plethora of shellfish before humans over harvested and polluted the waterways. I guess that is why I never would have guessed that New York was plentiful in oysters and other shellfish. Some of the information that McCully provided about dumping and water pollution was very interesting, especially the fact that numerous outbreaks of typhoid were caused by consumption of toxic oysters. Although many bans and government regulations were instituted to prevent and reduce over harvesting and toxic dumping, it became hard to enforce them. The government implemented the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and Clean Water Act of 1972, which appeared to be somewhat successful as declining species began to repopulate the waters.
Overall, the general theme is the same: humans need to coexist with nature. However, when we continue to live in a world dominated by large corporations that still illegally and carelessly dump poisonous chemicals into our water, it is difficult to make any long-lasting progress.
