James Kim died trying to hike out of the Oregon wilderness to bring help for his family.

We had CNN on in the newsroom Wednesday when the announcement came that searchers had found the body of Mr. Kim, who had gone for help because his family had been stuck on an Oregon mountain road for over a week.

For a few minutes there were reports from a TV station that he had been found alive but we’ve learned not to trust such early returns. We report so many deaths that we learn not to hope for survival against all odds — though actually some part of us is hoping for a miracle, and not just because it makes such a better story.

There is the obvious tragedy of a family losing its father, but what I find most heartbreaking is the likelihood that Mr. Kim passed from this earth not knowing his family was safe, and that his desperation to help them prodded him to take greater and greater risks to his own safety.

This nature we adore sometimes seems actively conspiring to return us bodily to the dirt; we know better. Nature darts off the trail as we approach. It rattles if we get too close, bites in self-defense. It brings back forests that loggers have clear-cut, yet exacts no revenge on succeeding generations who camp under its canopy.

Nature in all its power couldn’t lift a twig to help James Kim.

It’s pointless to stand against nature, but we must respect its dangers — and its indifference. Nature just doesn’t care how things work out for us. That’s up to us and others of our kind.