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- The zoologist and activist George Monbiot has spoken frequently of the problem of “shifting baseline syndrome” in ecology; that is, the conviction that the circumstances to which one has become accustomed – the landscape in which one grew up, for example – are the “correct” circumstances, the default setting. The term can be usefully applied to our attitudes towards the “wild sweeps of moorland” of which Mabey wrote. The objective position is that these are denuded monocultures, industrial badlands stripped of biodiversity by sheep-farming and grouse-rearing. In the generations since their deforestation and clearance, however, we have developed – learned? – a sincere appreciation for the starkness of the bare moor and treeless fell.
Good point.
I think you might also find William Cronon's "The Trouble with Wilderness" mentioned in the article quite interesting to read. One of the more interesting (and out-there) ideas that I like is that most of what we call 'untouched nature' (e.g. National Parks) are very much cultural places, defined just as much by humans as by non-humans.