What is this thing called 'natural'? The nature-culture divide in climate change and biodiversity policy

Sean Penn's Into the Wild is a magnificent, epic film that tells an intriguing story of the wilderness. The film, based on Jon Krakauer's book of the same title, is about a young man who leaves what he perceives to be false and materialistic life behind to enter the wild in search of the pure and authentic. In an interview about the film, Sean Penn said that, while human inauthenticity and corruption impede our quality of life, "the wilderness is relentlessly authentic" (MacGrath 2007). However, the young man's quest for the pristine and pure, and his revolt against society, end in misery and death. In this story, the wilderness represents both the untouched and pure, which are worth aiming for, and the untamed and violent, which threaten and destroy human lives.