I think there are three main ways to relate to other nature:

• Nature as resource (exploitation)
• Nature as nostalgia (conservation)
• Nature as a prerequisite for everything (respect)

There is a big difference between respecting nature and romanticizing it. Respecting nature means not getting attached to individual things or species because they are aesthetically pleasing or because you have invested time in them. The latter stems from an economic perspective. If you respect nature, you do not want to maximize the short-term profit of its resources, nor do you want to preserve something just because it has existed before. To respect nature is to refrain from interference and control. Intervene only when it is absolutely necessary and only to the extent that it is. Cut down the trees you need to build the cottage you are going to live in. Not the amount that is profit-optimizing. Do not preserve species that can no longer exist in a changed climate, but leave nature free enough so that species can move and develop in new environments. Nature then does not have to be locked up in a museum or destroyed. It can be perishable, protected and in constant motion.

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