The contradicting nature and conflicts of pursuing greener environment by horticulture:
From an biological and historical perspective
I was dropped out of school four years ago, and it was when I began to have the chance to look at this wonderful world from a different point of view. I have become aware of the practice of horticulture by men that seems to go hand in hand with the process of civilization. However, there was an idea turning over in my mind ever since, that this pursuit is in itself contradictory. That is, the employment of horticulture does not bring us closer to a greener or better environment and chances are high that it does quite the opposite.
To elaborate this idea, examples have to be given. For instance, few people would know that planting more tree might has a harmful effects on the ecosystem. Let us ask why? What's the harm if we plant more trees, doesn't a forest provide a carbon deposit in terms of global warming? Yes, the answers to the above questions will be a Yes; however, this world is never so easy as can be examined by such a dichotomy view. Whether the consequence resulting from planting more trees is good or bad depends on how many trees are planted, where they are planted and what species of trees are planted. In addition, the energy expenditure, pollution, and degradation of biodiversity that came with the nursery and plantation have to be taken into account. Are all negative effects offset by their positive counterparts? There is no answers to those questions, but I can, through this research, make out a clearer contour of this issue.
In this research, the practice of horticulture will be first described and the ill-effects brought about by horticulture from a biological and ecological aspect explained later. Then I will examine this issue from a historical viewpoint, i.e. the changes we human society have taken on in the process of civilizing and its relationship with the use of horticulture. And I do this in hope of finding out what made humans to adopt such, if contradictory, practices of horticulture to pursue a greener environment.
All in all, this research aims to deal with the long-accepted norm that horticulture is good and making everything in order and neat is good also. I, as an environmentalist, hope, that this research paper can bring fourth a gradual awakening that we have been doing something wrong.
