Here's one comment to the essay that certainly speaks of the natural beauty throughout Britain.
The author's heart is in the right place, but he is clearly wrong. I have lived in the UK for many years and have found wilderness five minutes from my door, 25 miles from London. There is an astonishing amount of green space in England, Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland, most of which my neighbours are unaware of. Much more green space around the cities than you will find in California.
I can walk or cycle five or ten minutes in any direction and be lost in moors, river ways, towpaths, small lakes, trails, pastures, and farms. In ten minutes I can be kayaking through overgrown green cathedrals, silent, alone save for ducks and swans. No noise, no humans. Five waterways to choose from. All this in and around a single city within a half-hour of central London.
And this is true all over the UK. Villages in Cornwall and Wales, surrounded by deep forests and river ways. Stunning walks around Liverpool. An hour from Edinburgh, tramping alongside deserted lochs. Two hours northwest of Glasgow, places you can only walk or boat to, where you can tramp for days. Canals all over which you can walk along for hundreds of miles with only the occasional fisherman, canal boat, pub, or B&B, seeing hardly a sign of "civilisation".
Of course many of these places have seen the hand of shepherds, crofters, farmers, miners, or railroads, but they have been abandoned for years, left to revert to wildness. Many of these places are right alongside densely inhabited areas, but are unknown.
