Glaciers

By far the most memorable experience I have had with the non-human world was seeing the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska. Initially, we were told that we could not sail into the inlet that the glacier terminated in as it was too foggy and the ice could not be clearly seen. As the boat I was on began to sail out to sea, however, the fog suddenly lifted and the captain made the decision to once again attempt to sail to the glacier. I'll never forget how amazing it was to see huge slabs of ice floating in the bluest water I have seen outside of Florida. The mountains rising sharply from the shore and topped with snow-covered peaks were unlike anything I had ever seen before, especially in August.

When we finally got to the glacier, the boat parked for a half hour. I remember sitting there in awe of this river of ice over a mile wide and scores of feet high. In that time, I was able to watch the glacier calve on several instances, sending out huge chunks of ice into the bay. It was amazing to see the glacier there despite the rather mild temperature and slowly flow to the sea as it has done for centuries. In fact, I filled up the memory on my old camera solely from pictures of the glacier and have nothing else from the rest of my trip to Alaska. Two decades ago, this glacier created an ice dam and blocked an adjacent fjord from the rest of the bay. When the dam broke, it unleashed a 25-meter high mass of water and had a greater flow than Niagara Falls. And while I of course did not witness this, see where this event happened again reminded me of the great power of nature and inability of humans to ever conquer it in its entirety.

Saving nature is an important pursuit for humans. At the most basic level, the natural processes our species depends on, from weather to agriculture, requires very specific arrangements of plants, animals, and geological features to function in the way we expect. When humans degrade these natural arrangements, drastic changes can occur that may threaten huge swaths of human civilization. Thus, man must learn to reap the benefits of the natural world but manage our impact to allow it to continue to nourish us in the way it has for millennia.

On a more abstract level, preserving natural environments deserves consideration for its own sake. It is important for humans to be humble with respect to nature, something that features such as glaciers and the Amazon help us achieve. In addition, the aesthetics of even pedestrian environments overall contributes to a better quality of life for humans and has long provided an important inspiration and opportunities for man.