In the first passage of Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature, the writer attempts correct the misconceptions of time and lifespan of earth. He explains that the perception of Earth’s age as prolonged is a falsification developed throughout time and establishes the idea that Earth’s age is vast an well beyond what many perceive it (earth’s age) to be. He supports this idea with substantial evidence of generational processes. McKibben writes very bluntly throughout the beginning of this book, which in my opinion is very beneficial to the audience, due to clarity and precision. However, as the reading progresses into the issues of the vast coexistence of humans in nature McKibben’s seems to really neglect his own contribution to nature’s detriment, largely lacking humility in my personal opinion. Being that even as an observer in nature, his presence is still an outlier in the natural processes that occurs in the very nature he is observing.
Just earlier this week, I found myself in an odd encounter with nature. I was studying Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature, outdoors in the city of Wooster. The air was crisp and the beamed down at its highest point. While sitting on the front steps of my temporary home I noticed a unbeknownst ant inches away. There it sat small and black with it’s antenna blowing in the wind, facing the street as if it was watching students and motorists pass us. In hindsight I can depict this ant perfectly; it was a profound experience, the ant and I sitting there. In that moment however, my inadmissible fear of bugs got the best of me resulting in the flicking of this ant across the sidewalk. In retrospect, I find myself asking if the ant posed any form of a threat to me in that moment and why that split second of tranquility turned detrimental so quickly for this ant.
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