Australia is one of the most naturally beautiful places I have been to, specifically because I see it as nature in its most untainted form.
The country has the largest and most diverse national park systems in the world, that covers over 24 million hectares of land.
I lived in Australia for 3-years and what I noted more than anything was how most Australians love being one with nature: traveling, diving, the wilderness, being outside, camping, and generally have enormous respect for the environment.
This is why I find it partly ingenious and partly scandalous that the Australian government has invested AU$10 million to work on a technology to form new rain clouds from blue skies by generating ions in the atmosphere.
This new ionization system uses a ground-based device to attract water molecules that then condense and generate heat; this apparently gives rise to an atmospheric condition where clouds are formed naturally.
Sure, many parts of are in dire need of rain, and a different form of rainmaking technology has been in use in Tasmania and the Snowy Mountains for years. Although the system seems natural, and is for no other reason but to provide water where deficient for obvious reasons, it disturbs me to see expertise in manipulating nature.
Australia tops the list of naturally beautiful destinations, but if they mess with nature and “create” environments for whatever reason, surely that would tamper with the fundamental reason as to why they are beautiful in the first place, no?