Eating Ecosystems

Small actions, like learning about the ecological roles of species (such as bats or wolves), spending mindful time in nature, or exploring Indigenous perspectives, can help build this deeper philosophical connection. These inner shifts ripple outward, influencing how we view ourselves not as masters of the natural world, but as stewards and custodi... See more

Framing is decisive. At every moment, we live and operate and relate to the world from inside our framing of it, our mental model of it. Relating to the world as made up of ecosystems will result in very different outcomes than relating to the world as made up of individuals, of discrete things that can be treated distinctly.

Enlightenment thinkers once disparaged animist ideas as backwards and unscientific. They considered them to be a barrier to capitalist expansion, and sought desperately to stamp them out. But today science is beginning to catch up. Biologists are discovering that humans are not standalone individuals, but composed largely of microorganisms on which

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While being obvious to many indigenous cultures, it may take quite of a mind-shift for us others to see ourselves as one (or even just interdependent) with nature and our overall environment, and to see any damage or destruction of that environment as a form of cannibalism (or self-destruction). But framing the unsustainable destruction of the envi... See more