The problematic conceptualisation of Nature has led confusion and failure to relate to reality. Some merge Nature into society creating a hybrid concept that denies the existence of anything but that which is human controlled or influenced, a position popular amongst Promethians of the Anthropocene. Strong social constructionism also dissolves Nature into the human as evident in some stands of the degrowth movement. Mainstream economists and those adopting concepts of natural capital similarly reduce Nature to an anthropocentric concept and instrumental value for human ends, e.g. the recent Dasgupta review. The importance of being able to distinguish what is meant by Nature and the natural is central to understanding this confusion and going beyond it. In this editorial these issues are explored with reference to a range of recent papers in Environmental Values.