If I had been asked about my knowledge of and opinion on salt marshes prior to this class, to be quite honest, I would not have had much to contribute. While I do consider myself environmentally conscious and I strive to lessen my own personal effects on our continually damaged habitats, never had I before considered the importance of salt marshes and the devastation they have endured. It is no surprise, then, that when the Europeans first encountered America, curiosity laced with fear and ulterior economic motives were their instinctual responses to this new earth. While I would never attempt to justify their actions – as they not only caused great harm to the environment, but also ruthlessly annihilated hundreds of thousands of Native Americans – I can try to understand their actions through their perspectives in the context of their political and social times.

Greeted in America by such vast, lush land, Europeans feared what they had never before seen, and subsequently saw quick, impulsive destruction as the solution to undermining the power of what they could not categorize or control. In addition, they arrived with Western ideals of economic success, as during that time, acquisition of land equated greater power. Thus, they viewed America as a land full of open opportunities for new products and economic markets. Fur trade, for example, became one of the first and most lucrative endeavors. Striving to prevail in this international power struggle, Europeans from numerous countries began arriving in greater numbers, hunting animals carelessly and reaping the land with only greater profit in mind. Such poor intentions rendered them blind to their negative impacts on the salt marshes, as well as the Native Americans, who were both dwindling in number and becoming increasingly indifferent towards a nature they had previously revered and treated with respect.

Although I do believe there was a degree of innocence involved in the Europeans’ actions – as it is true they lacked the scientific knowledge and foresight to understand the impact they left on the environment – I recognize a greater correlation to human nature. While we sit in this present future debating the intentions and culpability of the Europeans, we inadvertently continue to destroy the environment, today. Such actions, to me, are not all that dissimilar from that of the early colonists – in fact, they are in many ways, even worse. This brings me to the question we posed earlier in class: are human behaviors natural or unnatural? I truly believe the central distinction made in answering this question is that we have the ability to reason and make choices. Though technology and distribution of knowledge have changed through the centuries, such human reason has not. I thus hold the Europeans accountable for their actions, as they most certainly had the choice to contemplate their actions and possible repercussions. Furthermore, we often underestimate the abilities of our brains – I highly doubt not one individual considered the damage he imparted at some point.

What trouble me most, however, are our current practices and culture. Today, we no can no longer use lack of understanding and scientific backing as an excuse – with the growth of research and the advent of the Internet, each and every one of us has the ability to learn about our various impacts on the environment and strive to make improved decisions – we just choose not to. Here, again, it comes down to choice. It is so very unfortunate that until we refuse to view the environment as a commodity and choose to pause and reflect upon our own actions, we will continue to cause irrevocable destruction to an environment that has generously provided for our survival for so long.