First we pave more land nearby and it’s no big deal. In fact, the road or housing development boosts the economy. More people can reach places faster.
Then we expand that paved area, again no big deal.
The we have to travel to get away from it all. There is no local nature, no chance for solitude in nature.
Then we pave over yet more to access more remote places, maybe build an airport, to facilitate getting away from it all.
Then we acknowledge that we’ve wrecked or done away with nature nearby so we feel we have to get away and feel entitled to what we need to get away and to the remote nature we get away to.
Then we build adorable little coffee shops adjoining those remote places, which we say help the local economy, prompting them to join this pattern.
Then fewer and fewer remote places with untouched nature exist to get away to, while increasingly more people feel entitled to access it.
Fewer and fewer people know the experience or meaning of solitude in nature.
Now we’re paving over those last parts of nature because why not? There’s not much there and hardly anybody remains who appreciates its value. If people don’t appreciate its value, does it have any?
