Pekka Kauppi criticizes the state of Finnish lakeshores. In the old days cattle grazed in the fields and lake shores, but now they are kept inside most of the time. The general trend is to leave the shores untouched, which means that thick underbrush grows and hides the trees from view. Another problem is caused by the unkempt roadsides, as they are the places that people look at when travelling. Beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder.
Some people are just more sensitive to beauty and attach more value to it than others.
Kauppi confesses that when outside, he constantly observes his surroundings, pondering over what has been done to which landscape and what has been left undone. Kauppi suspects that often people are unaware of their longing for beauty. When we criticize the clear-cutting of timber, we speak of the damage caused to biodiversity and to the living conditions of various species. Deep down, we might, in fact, grieve the loss of beauty in a familiar landscape. The whole idea of Enviromental Science lies in multidisciplinarity.