If people just plain like nature, that alone is a good reason for there to be nature. That’s true for just about anything (that doesn’t harm others). The question is whether nature is deserving of some special status or protection (maybe nothing is deserving on such protection and there should be only as much of it as arises under free markets, but that’s another argument). I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that nature is a world completely apart and that we bring none of our baggage with us when we enter it. But I do think that I can be more relaxed and confident that my experience is genuine and that I’m not being played in the woods than I can in Disney World, that this is of special value, and that this is precisely the kind of thing that the market tends to under-provide since no profits can be made from it.
If people just plain like nature, that alone is a good reason for there to be nature. That’s true for just about anything (that doesn’t harm others).
And everything that does too! (For a start because having activities with no negative externalities is virtually impossible. Both keeping and destroying nature included.)
If people just plain like nature, that alone is a good reason for there to be nature. That’s true for just about anything (that doesn’t harm others). The question is whether nature is deserving of some special status or protection (maybe nothing is deserving on such protection and there should be only as much of it as arises under free markets, but that’s another argument). I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that nature is a world completely apart and that we bring none of our baggage with us when we enter it. But I do think that I can be more relaxed and confident that my experience is genuine and that I’m not being played in the woods than I can in Disney World, that this is of special value, and that this is precisely the kind of thing that the market tends to under-provide since no profits can be made from it.
And everything that does too! (For a start because having activities with no negative externalities is virtually impossible. Both keeping and destroying nature included.)