ABSTRACT
“Nature” is a pliable term. Definitions vary with the values, culture, and purpose of the speaker. This chapter compares five definitions: economic nature celebrates efficiency and focuses on resources and ecosystem services that fuel markets, aesthetic nature includes parks and scenery that inspire recreation and reflection, moral nature extracts ought from is to guide ethics and policy, and scientific nature evokes debates about balance, fragility, extinction, and resilience. The chapter concludes with speculation about what the dawning Anthropocene suggests for a needed new relationship between people and nature.
