We Should Reexist In Urban Spaces

Reminding us that natural spaces persist in urban areas and pointing out that it is in our best interest to promote stewardship of these spaces and plan them within our urban areas rather than traveling to go visit “nature”, Hough encourages us to reexamine pre-industrial era philosophies and utilize our new found technologies to reduce our carbon footprint while enhancing our ability to incorporate nature back into our urban lives. Pointing out the contradiction between the value we claim to have for our natural resources and the behaviors we engage in within our urban spaces, Hough illustrates how we continue to treat nature as if it is foreign to urban spaces, belonging somewhere else, in a place you visit during your leisure time. Rather than imposing traditional beliefs and utopian ideals upon these natural spaces within our urban areas, Hough argues that we should be embracing their natural beauty and appreciating their biodiversity.

Technology has been used to manipulate our environment to suit our needs and create an artificial environment we perceive as separate from nature. Understanding that evolution and change are part of all natural processes and learning to recognize the nature within urban areas, can help us coexist with nature and alter the erroneous view that human involvement destroys nature. Education can help society recognize the beauty of the natural processes that sustain us, better understand how to work in harmony with these processes, and value the purpose behind the process. Although we recognize the importance of biodiversity and the interdependence of life forms, we continue to design spaces within urban areas in ways that impose traditional ideals of power and control over the natural environment; therefore, preventing biodiversity and requiring large amounts of effort and