The Anthropocene Illusion; Fake Environments Grow In Popularity; Skiing In Dubai, Domed Tropic Forests, Pengun Cafes

[hatrack]

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Humans have concentrated in cities. We have separated ourselves from the land we once roamed – and from other animals. But somewhere deep within, a desire for contact with nature remains. So, as we destroy the natural world around us, we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial experience of nature, a reassuring spectacle, an illusion. Over the past six years I have visited 14 countries across four continents, observing how we humans immerse ourselves in increasingly artificial landscapes. We holiday on synthetic beaches, attend zoos that display living animals in artistically rendered dioramas of their natural habitats, and visit amusement parks that offer a “jungle experience”. We gaze at aquatic creatures in artificially lit sea-worlds, and at polar bears in Chinese shopping malls, pacing out their existence in glazed enclosures of plastic ice and snow. We ski on artificial slopes in Dubai, while outside the desert temperature is 48C.

Tropical Islands holiday resort in Germany is a short train ride from Berlin. Housed in a vast hermetically sealed dome, the resort offers a sandy beach, a 10,000 sq metre indoor rainforest, a waterfall and a mangrove swamp with live turtles, dragonfish, flamingos and macaws. It’s so large you can ride in a hot air balloon inside the dome, hovering above the crowds on the synthetic beach below.

In the numerous theme parks and zoos I visited, I realised a strange thing: in these places, nothing happens. There are no surprises. There may be a wave machine, or a volcano that puffs smoke on the hour, or a rollercoaster offering momentary thrills. But nothing changes, good or bad. Everything repeats itself. Nothing happens unless it’s part of the show. Here, nature is made safe – no thorns, biting insects, flooding or unpredictable creatures. This is nature only as spectacle.

Even the surviving scraps of nature in the real world are becoming packaged for our consumption. yosemite national park in California receives more than 4 million visitors a year, almost all of whom arrive by car. I found myself in a long traffic jam of SUVs crawling through the park, engines and air-conditioning running. Occasionally, a window glides open and an arm extends out to take a photo on a smartphone.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/24/humans-addicted-faking-natural-world-anthropocene-illusion-zed-nelson-aoe

[hunter]

1. If it keeps people out of the actual wilderness isn't that a good thing?

Especially if such synthetic wilderness experiences make people aware of an actual wilderness that needs protection.

Environmental tourism is an oxymoron. Floods of tourists often end up destroying the places they are attracted to.

My parents traveled a lot with me and my siblings when I was a kid. The way my parents traveled used to infuriate me. They'd bypass all the tourists places, even when we were living in Europe. Part of it was that they didn't have the money, but part of it was they didn't care.

My affluent classmates would be bragging about their adventures to Europe, New York, etc., and I could say "Yeah, I've been there."

"Did your go to the Empire State Building? The Statue of Liberty? The Eiffel Tower?"

Nope. Me and my siblings would run around feral in some random neighborhood while my parents chatted with some eccentric person, maybe a friend or fellow artist, possibly some stranger they just met. Then we'd camp in some park no one has ever heard of.

We'd drive past Yosemite or Yellowstone and stay at some Forest Service campground, never visiting the National Parks themselves, never being part of the mob.

I have an appreciation for that kind of travel now, even in my own backyard.

Places that have been overwhelmed by tourists, that have been disconnected from their natural or cultural history by the mobs, make me sad.

On the other hand, maybe by turning places like Yosemite into artificial wilderness experiences, complete with flush toilets and the sewage treatment plant at El Portal, we take some human pressure off what remains of the actual Sierra Nevada wilderness. Unfortunately, this California wilderness is also incomplete without its wolves and grizzly bears and too many people on the trails seeking a "true" wilderness experience.