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Memories of the 28th Century

Why Not Nature

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Recently it has become patently obvious to me that most people are afraid of the natural world, and I'm not the first or only one to notice this disturbing change in human nature. I have known for quite some time that many people did not like the natural world, but those were just some oddballs who grew up in urban areas, so I didn't pay much attention to them. But in recent years they have become more common and more influential.

Some of those people who fear nature have gained positions of power, and they are trying to make nature what they want it to be, rather than allowing it to be what it is. For example, the people who fear climate change are neglecting the fact that nature is ever-changing. Climate change has been constant. It warms, then it cools. It becomes rainy, then it dries, then it becomes wet again. And that keeps on. Don't worry; someday it may be as you want it to be; just have patience.

I started this post because of some recent snow storms here in New England that some people seem to think were horrible disasters. I think they have been grossly over-hyped. The first one was the most over-hyped - 18 to 36 inches of snow were predicted, but it turned out to be about 12 inches, which is not a disaster. Last Monday's storm was about a foot, and that's just a little less than was predicted. This Monday's storm was predicted to be as much as 18 inches, but it's turning out to be less than a foot. The problem with the weather reporting is the same problem that all TV news reporting has, it exists to attract people to an advertising medium, rather than to inform. Like the rest of the news the weather predictions are for entertainment only; we shouldn't expect any real news from it. But the snow became a problem, because it is too much like canine feces on the sidewalk; it's something that is out of place to many people.

It seems that most people want nature, whether snow, dog feces, dead livestock, fallen leaves, or whatever to be hidden out of sight, out of sight out of mind. Quite some time I wrote a post about the relative absence of dogs; I learned later that there were many dogs that were kept indoors, but that seems quite unnatural to me. Like the author of the Austin Chronicle article (link below) I find nothing strange about seeing dogs wandering around unleashed. The idea that dogs and other parts of the uncivilized world aren't under complete control at all times seems very natural to me, but seeing dogs leashed at all times seems quite unnatural.

That probably is just a reflection of other aspects of my personality, but I like to think that it suggests that I am closer to the natural world than most people. I find a walk in the woods pleasant, and I have no need for carefully graded trails, unless it is a major thail. For that matter, I don't even need a trail all of the time. Relaxing in the woods seems perfectly fine to me, but there are people who can't take a dose of nature without a camper that has all the conveniences of home.

I regard it as annoying to have to slog through snow, but the snow is part of nature; it's part of how things are. In Winter the outside temperature drops, but it is easy to adjust to that, but some people seem to think that it is horrible that people be outside when it's 20 degrees F, even though that's quite comfortable to healthy people. After all, It's not cold until it's below twenty below zero.

I still don't know why some people are afraid of nature, but I suspect that it has something to do with the lack of control. Nature is bad, because we can't set the thermostat and know that it will act as we want it to act. But having that twisted idea separates people from the great benefits that can be gained from interacting with the natural world; the Fox News article cites a variety of benefits that have been demonstrated.

What do you think? Do you fear the natural world? Do you find the apparent randomness of nature loathsome? And what (if anything) do you think of TV weather predictions?


http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-the-outdoors/

http://www.austinchronicle.com/featu...9-09-10/73787/

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/0...raid-outdoors/

Updated 02-10-2015 at 03:06 PM by PeterL

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