The attitudes of people belonging to different cultures towards landscape seems to be one of the issues behind many environmental debates. In some languages like English the word has emotional connotations associated with beauty unless qualified by an adjective such as ‘wasted’ or ‘ruined’.<\/p>\n
In Oman attention is paid to environmental issues and lovely city gardens are attended by groups of gardeners. However, when a mechanical digger appeared on top of the beautiful White Mountain that lies behind the city no-one raised an eyebrow. The machine began to scar the face of the mountain permanently as it excavated a wide trench for a motor way running across the face of the mountain. In another culture this would have sparked outrage but not in Oman. This illustrates how attitudes to landscapes differ from one culture to another.<\/p>\n
In parts of the world where nature still rules, as in desert countries where waterless environments forbid human intrusion there tends to be less veneration for wild scenes. In a country like England attitudes to the environment were defined to a large extent by poets like William Wordsworth and Gerard Manley Hopkins. His words, ‘Glory be to God for dappled things’ set the almost religious reverence for the natural environment that is encoded in the language.<\/p>\n
As Hopkins perceived, both natural and built environments have their own aspects of interest, depending on what is in the mind of the viewer. To some, the only built feature in a perfect view may be a rustic cottage. To others, factories and smoke stacks are beautiful in their own way.<\/p>\n
In orientating themselves people either look into the distance and see broad sweeps of reality or they focus on details and are either oblivious or indifferent to wider perspectives. Possibly this has something to do with cultural inheritance. Those who have entered emotionally into the concerns of English literature can hardly be indifferent to the significance of the surrounds.<\/p>\n
In the twenty-first century the reality is that built city landscapes are the ones that most people have in common. Here there is more hope for mutual understanding. In China, America and Europe it has become fashionable to plant trees. TV scenes illustrate how young trees now decorate city streets from Beijing to Chicago. The word ‘landscape’ yields about half a million results on an online search. This testifies to the currency of the word in the contemporary world. Read more about: Landscape<\/A><\/p>\n