Nature of the Everglades

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Immediately in this excerpt, the first section stood out to me. Douglas starts off with “there are no other Everglades in the world” (Douglas 104) and proceeds to glorify the Everglades unique beauty. She boasts that nothing is like their vast glittering openness, massive winds, and dazzling, great blue sky (Douglas 104). This section starts off the excerpt and it is a capturing, alluring beginning. It drew me in immediately and piqued my interest. It is clear from this section that Douglas both admires and loves the Everglades in its natural beauty. I enjoyed reading about what is clearly Douglas’ passion, for it is always inspiring to see an individual so passionate about what they love. I do not the Everglades or know much about them, but Douglas captured me with her strong emotions for the Everglades. Passion is a value that is really important to me.

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          Nature can be great in both its good and its bad. Although nature can be great, sometimes its greatness affects us negatively. An example of this is an event that is well known to Floridians: hurricanes. Hurricanes are famous acts of nature; however, they can be extremely destructive and even deadly to not just us humans but all the other species in this habitat as well. Douglas describes the occurrence of hurricanes as “rising hot air [that] is flung into circular motion by the immeasurable spinning power of the world” (Douglas 118). It is said that the velocity of the spin has been recorded at 200 miles an hour, but no one knows their great speed because recording instruments are blown away before that (Douglas 118). The fact that a hurricane can spin over 200 miles an hour is crazy to me. Nothing is powering it except Mother Earth herself. It is a complete natural power. Hurricanes are huge, violent storms and prove that we cannot ever completely conquer nature. We can destroy the land but hurricanes prove that nature cannot be tamed, and like hurricanes, nature is not to be messed with. 

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           On Douglas 124, she describes the water in the rivers and bays as being clean and clear with only natural discolorations from either mangroves or shimmering light. She mentions the “sand reefs, sea gardens, and acres of clean green weed” (Douglas 124). This stood out to me because it made me sad to realize how much damage progress and pollution has done to this simple statement. As this work was published in 1988, there was nowhere near the amount of pollution as there is today. Now, just about every body of water is tainted because of humans. It is not natural discolorations. It is pollution and death of species because of all the pollution we make every day. Douglas was so proud when talking about the clean, clear water, and it is disheartening to know that we cannot make simple statements like this anymore. Our touch has tainted every pure water we know.

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        Last but not least, my absolute favorite section of this excerpt was the description of the otters. I love otters and always have. They are such carefree, cute animals, and it disturbs me that they could ever be trapped or hunted by a human. I would never be able to trap, hunt, or kill an innocent, playful, little otter. I really enjoyed the way Douglas describes the otters in the Everglades. The otters “swim and flirt” among the alligators and know how to “enjoy life in the sun better than all the rest of the creatures” (Douglas 145). Douglas expresses how they are extremely curious and friendly creatures that have such lively spirits, playing in the mud and having fun (Douglas 145). How a person could ever trap an otter just to make a profit is beyond me. In my eyes, this description further brought this excerpt to life. The Everglades is clearly such a unique place that is so alive with life in many forms. Humans should not touch or tamper with it.

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