Re-membering our connection with the rest of nature
Why it's important
Re-membering our connection with the rest of nature
We can’t expect people to take care of things they don’t care about
Restoring Respect for Nature: How Mindset Shifts Can Solve the Biodiversity Crisis
Rebuilding our philosophical connection to nature has the largest potential to drive a societal transformation toward sustainability but it is also likely the most difficult connection to change. This is because it demands not only a shift in deeply entrenched and nuanced cultural narratives but also a fundamental transformation in individual minds... See more
Jonathan Aronson • Restoring Respect for Nature: How Mindset Shifts Can Solve the Biodiversity Crisis
positive emotional connections to nature increase our affinity toward it which research has shown contributes to willingness to protect the environment, especially in adolescents.
Jonathan Aronson • Restoring Respect for Nature: How Mindset Shifts Can Solve the Biodiversity Crisis
We have suffered an “extinction of experience”, a phrase coined over 20 years ago by naturalist Robert Pyle
Jonathan Aronson • Restoring Respect for Nature: How Mindset Shifts Can Solve the Biodiversity Crisis
Talk to the birds, trees, rocks – as if they were neighbours or friends. The world around you will suddenly become more alive.
“Connection isn’t about nature in our service, a slave to our needs, a commodity for our use, a sticking-plaster for our stresses. Nature isn’t there to provide us with therapy; that isn’t what connection is about. Connecti
... See moreSmall 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
Jonathan Aronson • Restoring Respect for Nature: How Mindset Shifts Can Solve the Biodiversity Crisis
Think about rituals each season to celebrate the arrival of spring or the harvest, think about rituals of gratitude and abundance each day to remember where our food came from or who was involved in cultivating the earth.
Ecological belonging is living in an ongoing interconnected relationship with ourselves, each other and our broader natural world... See more
Ecological belonging is living in an ongoing interconnected relationship with ourselves, each other and our broader natural world... See more
Ecological Belonging
‘nature-deficit disorder’ to refer to the impact of a lack of connection with nature on people’s health. ‘It describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses,’
Lucy Jones • Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild
There are some simple and impactful actions that organizations and individuals alike can take. These actions can be grouped into five types of human-nature connections, originally identified by Interdisciplinary Sustainability Scientist Christopher Ives and colleagues in their 2018 article Reconnecting with Nature for Sustainability. They are:
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Jonathan Aronson • Restoring Respect for Nature: How Mindset Shifts Can Solve the Biodiversity Crisis
Escaping our built environment and spending time in green spaces is a simple and effective way to enhance not only our experiential connections (i.e. physical interactions) with nature but our cognitive connections too. These are the mental processes involved in understanding, appreciating, and interacting with the natural world which can shape our... See more