Nature

This summer, I spent a week in the oldest rainforest in the world. In Taman Negara, Malaysia, I was enthralled by the beauty and complexity of nature. One particularly magical and thrilling moment was when I went on the canopy walkway, a bridge that towered very high above the ground. Feelings of awe outweighed my fear of heights, and it was truly an unforgettable moment. Unfortunately, it only took a deeper glance across a river to see bulldozers and logging machines at work. The river served as a boundary to the protected zones, and the differences between the sides were distinct.

I also toured an indigenous community that, before modernity, thrived off the land. To see what “civilization” has done to these communities was horrifying, and I realized that nature was not just a luxury concern for those who could afford to worry about it, but it was a diverse ecosystem that should be protected from our own interests.

I believe nature is very much something worth saving, as long as it can be done without costing development opportunities. One only needs to look at Haiti and the Dominican Republic to see that development at the expense of the environment can yield harsh consequences.