Can exploitation of the western lands environment be justified? (one page essay) by Ty Lee
"For there is no victory, without sacrifice." -Anonymous. This quote explains directly that without gaining something, your have to sacrifice something. The one question that is asked for this topic is: Can exploitation of the western lands environment be justified? In my opinion, I think that this can be justified, but in a way, it wouldn't. The benefits from taking the western lands overcame some of the balances between the sacrifices and benefits. This will be compared with two different examples, that explain how the benefits of taking the west turned out and gave more than the sacrifices made into America's westward movement. One sacrifice made that related to America's movement towards west was answered previously in this presentation. Along with taking California, the Americans also killed and spread disease throughout much of the Native American population. Smallpox was one disease that made a big difference in the Native American population. Americans wouldn't help, so therefore, Native Americans died by day being infected. Another way their population went towards a downfall was because the Americans would kill them for no entire reason. The Native American's innocence meant nothing to them. They killed with no charges set on the murderers. Slaughtering. Annihilation. Butchery. Madness. Inhuman. These are the words the described the murderers who did such a thing. Yes, Americans did benefit from mining gold and using the land for farming, but this sacrifice, just doesn't seem right. Another sacrifice made was how Americatreated their natural resources. Americans did use hydraulic mining, so debris and other possible contaminants could have mixed in with the fresh water, along with crops and forestry. This also stopped animal migration patterns, such as the salmon. Along with mining, logging was somewhat of a sacrifice. Trees were always being cut down, lowering the tree population everyday, with all but the stump of the tree gone. Though, I feel that the benefits built as well! With these examples, America's benefit
with exploiting the western lands overcame the mistakes they made with
the environment.
This is how I interpret the exploitation of the western lands. In
ways, America won with not much lost, but in others, America won with
lots loss. In conclusion to my thoughts, all the examples weighed each
other out, making a balanced victory between benefit and sacrifice.