There is a common habit people tend to practice in society and said habit is the need to divide the arts and humanitarian studies, from science and arithmetic studies. Now that is not to say I have not fallen guilty of this division and classification pertaining to scholarly work since of course structure and order is crucial in the world of academia. However, literature and art pertaining to the environment and of the sort are not as separated from the science field as I previously thought it was which I began to discover after reading The Emergence of the Environmental Humanities by Robert Emmett and David Nye.

The further I delved into the reading, the more I realized that at a certain point in time, there were civilizations and groups of people that did not know fact from fiction meaning that only the people that were well-read and dedicated to their studies could critically analyze written work and separate the scientific aspect of the work from the fantasy side. But with this being said, it also adds more layers to legends and folktales considering most of them had to be created with an understanding of science regarding the environment, “The environmental humanities provide historical perspectives on the natural and social sciences, pointing to how their agendas, initial goals, and occasional failures have been affected by political ideologies and economic interests” (5). I legitimately did not realize the amount of knowledge one had to have in order to speak or write about environmental issues when it pertains to humanities but in retrospect, it is almost a given that one needs to have a substantial amount of scientific research on the topic in order to form an interpretation through literary theory.

These correlations between science and humanities is something that should be addressed and thoroughly explained to any person that is involved or is thinking about pursuing a career in STEM since it is no secret that people that enter a more science-based field of study tend to view the arts as less important which both Emmett and Nye argue against, “The open-minded, constructive approach of the environmental humanities can motivate creative cooperation between the humanities and the sciences and can assist in the interpretation of scientific results” (7). While many will continue to argue that the gaps between science and arts and humanities are still apparent, there is still no doubt that critical thinking is extremely beneficial in scientific studies and has been utilized throughout history in literature and art in general.