Don't get me wrong: I certainly don't wish for corporations to destroy the environment for their own benefit, but primarily because I believe that if the environment is to be exploited for industry the rewards of that should be shared equitably amongst the workers in a worker-owner cooperative structure, and the spoils of it should be shared equitably across mankind, and not only those alive today, but also those in the future, hence we need sustainability.
Insofar as actually wanting to preserve it for its own sake though - I think it's meaningless, in a vacuum I would in fact prefer less biodiversity, especially when it comes to insects, and I would really like it if we could exterminate all species of fungi, mosses, lichen as well.
Where others see untouched ecosystems I see unused land that could be a nice city.
I'm an anarchist but I am firmly anti-degrowth, I would genuinely side with neolibs against anprims because they made a far better world even for all it's flaws. Doesn't help that neolibs have actual arguments and all anprims have is the "noble savage" and "appeal to nature" fallacies. Superficially I'm more on the side of soviet tech optimism if that makes sense.
Beyond the political, I don't really have any affinity for it, there are people who say various nonsense like "green spaces improve our mental health" whereas I find them mostly depressing and kind of out of place.
I am okay with parks in cities as long as they're empty and within reach of civilization, but green spaces like parks in cities aren't nature, they're a well curated almost entirely artificial human creation, an expressionist pastiche of green.
Actual nature is wildfires, cancer, floods, earthquakes, predation, parasitism, prions, wasps, itching, pain, burning, poisons, toxins, spores, fungi, spores, lichen, moss, mosquitoes, wasps, bacteria, sun overly bright, needing to pee, being itchy, negative emotions, reptiles, spiders, no amenities, dirt, dirty water (swamps), viruses, bacteria, thorns, stinging nettles, mites, ticks, lyssavirus, people turning to religion etc.
Flowers smell okay, but really air freshener smells better.
I find it all absolutely disgusting, and what's even more disgusting is that these things can affect my unfortunate meat flesh prison, it could make me sick with some COVID-over9000 - another of mother nature's little treats, and then ruin my plans for the day, or even my life.
Nature is pain and agony, and when it's not trying to kill you, it'll damn well do it's best to make you uncomfortable 24/7, it makes me long for the eternal sanctity of steel in lieu of flesh, and the safety of concrete paved city roads lit under a warm orange glow of an artificial street lights. Some nice brutalist architecture, flat colours, sharp geometric shapes - urban and industrial environments feel like home.
As long as there isn't crowds though - people are nature too and pretty disgusting as well, they are as irrational as any frightened animal and a vector for disease.
I never understood what the big deal was with staying inside during the pandemic. It's one thing if you have a shit place and you have to house share or live with parents, if you rent a semi-modern apartment for yourself, I don't see the issue. As long as you're comfortable and have plenty of space, what else is there? All the things one could want are on the internet anyway.
I much prefer the internet tbh, here I have control, if there's something I don't like, I don't have to ever see it again, but I can also engage with it freely without the interaction ever escaping my control, my agency is never impeded. The digital space is much more liberating.
Outside I can't really use an adblocker, or a waspblocker, or a sporeblocker, or a people-blocker.
I've read a number of posts like this on Reddit before and to get ahead of the usual replies:
You have allergies!
No. I don't have any as far as I know.
You just need to do shrooms
I have several times, though I kinda hated it, I much prefer acid myself, and it didn't change my opinion in the slightest. Best place to trip is at home, I can't imagine the panic attack I'd have tripping outside. Actually I can because I have. Would not do that again. At least it was in a business district and not in some ugly forest so I could duck into a Starbucks.
You hate animals
No, I've actually had pets. That said while I value the companionship I would prefer an artificial companion instead.
You just need to spend more time in nature
I've already spent way more time in nature than I'd ever want.
You should read about nature more
Yeah I have. I actually quite like reading about ancient creatures and whatnot, especially from the Cambrian period.
You're just born after 2000!
Idk how that one is relevant but I'm from 1998.
But you're part of nature
Yeah, I hate that. The bits about myself that I love are all that I managed in spite of it, not because of it. I will hate growing old as my meat prison rots and breaks down and I will hate having to confront mortality knowing there is so much to do.
You just haven't visited [x]
I've visited the French Alps as a kid and it smelled like pig shit and made me exhausted, I've visited farms and it smelled like horseshit and was dirty, I've visited Times Square and it was the happiest memory I had as a kid. As an adult I've visited all up and down the UK and Russia (the Baikal and Ural) and idk about the nature there, it's all just whatever and blends in.
At one time a field in the UK offered me peace when I needed it due to material struggles and I enjoyed it, (despite the unfortunate fact it was a reminder of wealth inequality because it was all privately owned by some aristocrat) or at least I thought I enjoyed it, now that I fixed it by improving my material circumstances and have no need for it.
EDIT: Because people cannot read, I've highlighted that I do not in fact think we should destroy mosses and lichen etc. and I am in fact aware that destroying any natural ecosystems has has serious negative cascading effects on everything else including human life and I do not wish for it because I'm not a moron
That's why I said "in a vacuum", as in -isolated from other factors. I'm glad this post has encouraged discussion but please just actually read it before engaging. The lack of reading comprehension on Lemmy is genuinely worrying.
It's an observation, not a conclusion ya nitwit.
The absence of scientifically rigorous, high sample size experimentally proven, well substantiated, documented reproducible conclusions does not render the observation wrong in and of itself because they're just not in the same category.
Observation is the first step to formulating a theory, which leads to a hypothesis, which can be experimentally tested.