The Non-Human World and Why We Need It.

I'm a little upset with how difficult it's been for me to answer this question, but I think i've settled on a memory. In 2005 I spent the summer in northern rural Japan. The area I lived in was vastly dramatic, spanning a large fertile valley, forest-rich mountains, an a plain that led to the Pacific Ocean. That summer I became engaged in the environment more than any other time in my life, biking from biome to biome, experiencing the affect of mankind on each, from abandoned mills on damned up waterfalls, to granite controlled oceanscapes. This experience was heralded with the discovery of a small river, not man-made, but obviously influenced by giant slabs of concrete every once in a while that held up the rocky soil and treeline above. The experience of discovering an abandoned speck of nature in the crazy-hectic country that is modern-day Japan brought me back to simpler times of self-dependency and engaging the world around us.

My time in the deep woods and high mountains was marked with discovering wild monkeys, climbing natural waterfalls, and accidentally crossing the almost indivisible line of rice-farm and high-wetland. Being removed from the confusion of not speaking Japanese, and sticking out like a sore thumb really changed how I view the non-human world as well as its ability to act therapeutically.

Addressing the second part to the question on the nonhuman world:

In pure humanly selfish terms, biodiversity and the idea of saving nature is undeniably necessary. In this regard, the overwhelming about of unharvested, un-researched, and simply unknown that exists in the world is worth protecting for the potential for mankind's manipulation. Medications, scientific breakthroughs, and linking ourselves even further to the world we occupy are all examples of why we need to protect our own interest in the great unexplored wilderness.

In addition to all this humankind selfishness, as mentioned in my personal engagement of the natural world, we can all benefit from the maintenance of natural space and biodiversity on a therapeutic level. In my opinion knowing, experiencing and loving all that our own environments have to offer is a critical part of leading a full and enriched life.