# Why do some people "Hate Nature"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432 "2007-08-13T14:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/61 "2007-08-15T11:17:09Z")
[QUOTE=elelle] … So, I’ll ask, what would help y’all appreciate Nature more? [/QUOTE] It is ALL nature, all natural – that was the point of my earlier post. I prefer the paved-over bits. ---
**Author:** ![shimmery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@shimmery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shimmery)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/62 "2007-08-15T12:45:09Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] Nature hates me. I’m just trying to not return the favor. [/QUOTE] I’m wondering if some of you nature lovers out there underestimate the level of discomfort the outdoors causes for the less fortunate among us. I have allergies so bad that, in elementary school, I had to stay inside at recess during the spring. I’m so fair that I start turning pink in ten minutes flat (seriously). And I recently went to an outdoor party at night for a couple hours and got so many bug bites on my feet that they swelled up to the ankles for the next four days. While I know that products exist to help me avoid all of the above problems, if I have to slather myself with two icky, smelly, oily lotions/sprays and get all doped up on antihistamines that might make me too sleepy to hold out for a two hour hike anyway… at a certain point, it’s just not worth it. Also, to me the appeal of the outdoors is the wonderful, frolicky, nature-y freedom of it all. If I have to plan ahead and buy ointments and medication and alter my natural state just to fortify myself to go outside, doesn’t that defeat the purpose? I want to be an outdoor person, I really do, I even try to pretend to myself that I’m an outdoor kind of girl. Spending the afternoon outside still sounds very appealing and sometimes I set out to do it anyway. But I also know that the outdoors just makes me incredibly miserable. What can I do? (my bad feelings about sunscreen might also have to do with the fact that I spent several huuuuumid New Jersey summers as a lifeguard and the horrible disgusting feeling of coming home covered in a layer of sunscreen, chlorine, and my own sweat is still relatively fresh in my memory.) ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/63 "2007-08-15T13:48:51Z")
[QUOTE=shimmery] (my bad feelings about sunscreen might also have to do with the fact that I spent several huuuuumid New Jersey summers as a lifeguard and the horrible disgusting feeling of coming home covered in a layer of sunscreen, chlorine, and my own sweat is still relatively fresh in my memory.) [/QUOTE] You have pale skin that turns pink in ten minutes flat and you were a life guard? Not a good combo **Shimmery** I have terrible allergies, but I found a few teaspoons of local honey alleviates the terrible symptoms when I go hiking. I usually have a teaspoon a day anyway it really works. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/64 "2007-08-16T00:43:11Z")
I don’t hate nature, nature hates me. Once the temperature hits about 85, I turn into a sweat machine. I need a sherpa to carry along a bucket of water to keep me hydrated. The mosquitos are the big beast for me. I was out weeding my flower bed after work today and added four more bites. Its a lot of fun. I have to go on a client-sponsored fishing trip to Canada at the end of the month. I am just hoping that I get liquored up enough that the mosquitos up there get alcohol poisoning. When I retire I need to get a summer house in New Zealand and a winter house in Edmonton. I’ll never see another mosquito again. ---
**Author:** ![smhanse751](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f4b2a3/32.png) [@smhanse751](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smhanse751)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/65 "2007-08-16T01:17:14Z")
nature is my ashtray :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/66 "2007-08-16T01:18:42Z")
Nature also washes my car. Thanks, nature! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/67 "2007-08-16T13:25:38Z")
Human behaviour outdoors also turns me off nature. Every time I see someone spitting outside, my reaction is “Well, now I’m never touching any grass anywhere again, because there might be spit on it. Blech.” ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432/68 "2007-08-16T14:41:38Z")
[QUOTE=Phlosphr] You have pale skin that turns pink in ten minutes flat and you were a life guard? Not a good combo **Shimmery**. [/QUOTE] To be fair, she probably is a championship quality swimmer and knows that ‘AAU’ isn’t a college in the Midwest. Can you still do a ‘flip-turn’? Can you still do 10,000 yards as a good workout? I just hope she takes out the medals & ribbons once in a while & looks at them (the red & blue ones fade). I grew up in a family of swimmers and while I wasn’t ever a great swimmer, the smell of chlorine still reminds me of good times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-people-hate-nature/415432.md?page=3)