Last year I took a GEOG 122 class taught be Dr. David Ley and Dr. Trevor Barnes, in which we investigated global phenomena within the discipline of human geography, such as globalization, urbanization, and the modernization movement. Interested in how these themes related to one of my core interests, the state of the environment, I wrote this essay exploring the role the theory of modernity has had in leading to the current environmental condition within China, a country with an observable and extremely rapid development. In the essay, I explore and how industrialization, urbanization, the system of governance, and ultimately, the theory of modernization are directly correlated with a country’s impacts on the environment.
After writing this essay, I, personally, found changes in the way I thought about the capitalist, Western systems in place within the Global North, and increasingly South, while shifting my views on the theory of modernity. With an increased knowledge on the subject, I realized that what we view as progress may truly not be progress at all, but simply a theoretical movement forward to higher economic standings, paired with a movement backwards in our respect for and caring for of the natural world. The information I gathered in writing this essay got me thinking about where we are moving as a global society, and sparked a realization that maybe this idea of “moving forward” may actually require us to regress in order to rethink and develop a society that functions more harmoniously with nature.
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