Taming the Wild to Reduce Uncertainty

Roadside, Walsenburg, Colorado

In his book, The Wooing of Earth: New Perspectives on Man'sUse of Nature (1980), René Dubos argues that it is not the "wilderness" that we cherish, it is our altered and tamed natural, park-like areas that we want to enjoy.

In essence, when we enjoy nature, we are enjoying our reinterpretation of it. Gone are the carnivorous animals and in their place, we've whacked a walking path clear of stumps and rocks that may trip us up and dampen our joyous experience. In fact, the built environmental has infiltrated the natural habitat so that we feel more comfortable.

Prior to our intervention, the wilderness was "difficult to penetrate and frightening" (Dubos, p. 5). He further asserts:  "Humanized environments give us confidence because nature has been reduced to the human scale, but the wilderness in whatever form almost compels us to measure ourselves against the cosmos" (p. 7). Within wilderness is uncertainty and as humans we tend to prefer to have the surety of no more than two options as opposed to the vast universe of uncertainty.