Christopher Carter - The Greeks and Modern Convienence

Greek culture advocated urbanization and public life. The Greeks did not view nature as something to be cherished or preserved for personal enjoyment. Nature was life; it was a necessity and nothing more. Is this really a good thing? Should we regard nature as something that simply "is" or should we cherish it? Romans sought not only to contain nature, but to control it as well. They "used and abused" nature so to speak, much like we do today. The alliance between man and grass was officially over shortly after it began. Aqueducts simply carried water into the city. The Greeks didn't feel like going to the river to bring the water back into the city, they designed tools and architecture to bring the water to them.

I don't think I would have too much of a problem with going to get water from a stream. I don't think it could be that hard to live without some modern conveniences except if you weren't able to heat up a house if it was cold or make a house colder if it was steaming hot. Temperature control is probably the only modern convenience that I really wouldn't want to live without. The problem that the Greeks had when they abused the environment is that they had tons of their own waste in their streets. They polluted their cities themselves and disrespected their forests, similar to how we have factories that produce smog and have lumber mills that cut thousands of trees per day. If you think about it, living like the Greeks would not be that great. Not only would you be slapping the environment in the face, but you also would not be living that much greater than you would if you just lived in the environment itself. Nowadays we have water treatment plants and sewage systems that don't even require us to look at the water we drink until it comes up into our tap. I think this results in a great disassociation between man and ecology. It sums it all up when we don't even get to see the giver of life, water, until it finally comes up into our man made spout or tap.