Outdoor recreation often slips into what I call an achievement-based relationship with nature. I’ve been guilty of it myself. Whether it’s “bagging peaks”, racing to finish the AT, or stamping the land with machines and monuments, the focus shifts from ecology to ego.
Being obsessed with Peak Bagging is not Solarpunk.
Nature is not your personal obstacle to challenge yourself against, it is a shared place of discovery you trample when you only see it as a place to endlessly, exhaustingly conquer.
I agree that its not a great attitude; but exposure to nature seems like a good way to correct it. I’ve known people who didn’t care about climate change; until they realized it would effect the trail they like to go running on.
The trash left on hiking trails isn’t great; but its nothing compared to the damage corporations have done. If just a few more people discovered a love of nature, that could inspire tighter regulations on corporations
Sure, but my argument is that it isn’t just about being physically in nature, that doesn’t magically make it impact you, it can end up just hurting nature and driving you further into an internal quest that diminishes your capacity to witness the world around you.
I am glad when people decide to care about climate change because their personal exercise facility is impacted but it is a shallow reason to care and it is fragile too. It is far better to invite people into nature in a way that actually deepens and radicalizes them.