From The Conversation (18/10/23), a thought provoking article about our relationship with nature and how it must be redefined, including some interesting, although somewhat academic, links…
Redefining our relationship to nature is crucial to address our current environmental crises.
Recently, I encountered the thought-provoking expression “God is dead, Marx is dead and I don’t feel so well myself.” I wonder if it is now the time to update this by adding “Nature is dead”?
Has Nature, framed as being separate to humanity, lost its relevance? Does humanity’s exceptionalist mindset, as famed biologist E.O. Wilson suggests, leave us “contemptuous towards lower forms of life”?
Globally, we have entered the Anthropocene, with humans the dominant force driving change in all ecosystems. Through our overwhelming influence on the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, no ecosystem anywhere is sheltered from our influence.
Whether it be through colonial redistribution of species, habitat loss, the diverse forces of climate change, overextraction or pollution by plastics, forever chemicals, and reactive nitrogen and phosphorus, there is no unaltered ecosystem. As some of these forces of change combine, ecosystems are being pushed past tipping points of collapse at a faster rate.