Author: iamsamin

As you start reading Mannatta, the one point that beings incredibly clear is how much the island of Manhattan has changed since it was first discovered and subsequently colonized. Even more astonishing is how quick these changes have happened. Manhattan is described as a green piece of land, filled with ponds, surrounded by rivers, and full of hills, valleys, and even wetlands. Yet the article notes that by 1811, the first major signs of a up and coming city was already striking the island. Sewers were being built along with streets and land was being flattened for housing. It is also noted that by 1898, the majority of Manhattan, with exceptions on the northern sections, had been changed and adjusted for city life.

It is incredibly strange to consider just how much the island has changed since it was first populated. The amount of different environments that have completely disappeared; streams, ponds, wetlands, beach, shore lands, and even forests. The pointing out of these previous ecosystems that was previously plentiful in Manhattan was a reminder of a mapping project I participated in last semester. For the project, I went out with a group to downtown Manhattan and mapped different streets in accordance to the previous ecosystems that existed there. Having done that before, I was very aware of the fact that the evolution of Manhattan has caused all of these places to completely disappear.

However, what we often do not consider when we talk about ecosystems disappearing, are the many animals that have gone away as a result of the changes to the city. This brings up the point about how humans often just cause changes to the their environment without any concern for the long-term consequences, especially when city-building. These changes have also causes most of the interaction that people in the past had with nature to disappear. In the end, many sacrifices went into the evolution of Manhattan and the biodiversity of the city has suffered considerably as a result.

First of all, before even really responding to this article, I have to point out one interesting fact near the beginning of this paper. In the article, it is noted that teenagers in Los Angeles are more likely to correct identify an automatic weapon that a bird by its call. Just as I read that, I noted to myself that the idea of identifying birds by the sounds they make sounds incredibly pointless. Just after I thought that, ecologist Robert Pyle states “collective ignorance ultimately leads to collective indifference.” It was very interesting to note that my thoughts prior to reading Pyle’s statements seemed to confirm his belief over the importance that people now a days place on nature.

I had many thoughts on Miller’s suggestion on how to reduce the gap that people in urban areas have from nature and through that, encourage conservation efforts in those urban centers. One thing that Miller mentioned was the notion of ‘shifting baseline syndrome,’ the idea that individual only notice differences in the present when compared to their experiences in the past. Naturally, as more people spend most of their lives in cities, these people have less exposure to nature and as a result, notice less of the negative environmental changes that are going on around them.

The clear way to address this ever more present issue is to somehow educate children and more importantly expose them first hand to the environments that they so often ignore or unaware of. The problem with this however is this is no easy feat. Most people, including children, are ignorant or uninterested in nature. Miller points that modern advances in entertainment have grabbed the attention of the younger population and made it more different to them to get exposed to nature and thus be more aware of it. Simply trying to encourage kids to be more active and spend more time outside would be beneficial, but realistically that is not enough given how much urban areas are separated now a days from nature.

Miller’s article notes that one example of perhaps exposing more adolescents to the world is through volunteer service. However, the problem with that is inherent in that people often have to have the desire to volunteer for them to actually participate in conservation efforts. One potential solution might be make volunteer service at conversation related organizations a requirement for students in school or something that gives an extra benefit to those students, such as extra credit. Some might argue that this does not convince children to help conserve the environment. However, at this point, the goal should be to get as many people aware of their surrounding nature rather than trying to indoctrinate them into the idea of conservation. When it comes down to it, there really are not easy solutions to this problem of ignorance.