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tl;dr -- because we've been inadvertently terraforming Earth for much of our history, the semantics of words like 'nature' are really dubious. The essay expends much energy proving this point, which I thought was a long-settled one.

I thought it was understood that words like 'nature' are a banner under which people and organizations with different values come together. The methods and consequences of maximizing these values are what's interesting. Values like:

- Earth's genetic history

- the wonder and romance of living on a planet with ancient and uncontrolled forces

- maintenance of the biosphere for continued human habitation