Thomas Hutton 4-18-12 White 2 Museum TIQA There was a particular part of the museum that very much

lends to my truth in that it indicates humans as the ultimate bearers of their environment, with the ultimate tendency to take that which is necessary to meet their means. The exhibit I speak of wasnt exactly an exhibit so much as it was a few signs that forewarned the human race in our continued misuse of natural resources. One of the signs partially read, Native Americans, through thousands of years, learned the interdependency of humans and nature. This was in stark contrast to the effect western man had on the natural frontier. While their courage and independence is admirable, they had adopted the attitude that they now possessed a rich, new environment which was theirs to exploit. If you give an artist a canvas, he will use it to create art. Now say the artist is actually early American settlers, and the canvas is the Frontier itself. Of course the settlers were going to exploit the environment, it was knew to them, and as far as anyone knew, no one had ever owned it. It was the perfect storm; you take thousands of adventurous settlers who want to create a live for themselves, place them in a new environment that has been untouched by modernized man, and allow them to uninhibitedly create that which they please, theyre not going to feel inclined to stop. Such is the nature of man by his obsession with making things. Theres another sign very near the first, which conveys a similar message, but this time in the form of a question: The question remainsDoes a generation have the right to do with our natural resources as it pleases without regard to the legacy it leaves to the future? Our attitudes of respect for wildlife, understanding of nature and realizations of non-renewable resources are as important today as they have ever been. This, to me, manages to say something very convincing without getting choked out by the late clich of badgering people about how much of a natural resource they are using. At one point, the sign mentions the legacy we will leave to our future. For me, creation is simply the way in which we carry on our own legacies. King Ramses III had hundreds of statues and temples built in his name, all for the sake of his remembrance after death. It is very true, humans tend to create things in respect to what future generations will think of us, but we may apparently very soon pay a heavy price for this: the very safety and stability of our own planet.