23: Appreciate Nature

How feeling connected with nature can inspire climate action and some ideas for appreciating nature this week for #52climatesolutions.

The impacts of climate change stem from the abuse, extraction and destruction of nature. This harm has mostly occurred in the past 250 years since industrialisation, when people started taking far more than their fair share of the earth’s resources. The advent of mass-industrialised systems meant a lot of the destruction of nature happened out-of-sight to most people. And this presented conditions for people to be less connected from natural processes and ecosystems, and more enamoured by manufactured stuff. The othering of nature needs to be overcome if we are to live sustainably as a species within earth’s ecosystems.

These days, most people do not see the mines, plantations, farms and factories where lots of destruction of nature happens or happened. This physical disconnection makes it easier to feel emotionally disconnected and remove empathy or appreciation of nature and the need to conserve it. Nature supports us. Frankly, we’d be stuffed without it. We are part of it. Nature is filled with inherent values, beyond humans - there are millions of species of plants, animals and other species, who all deserve the right to flourish. Many cities and suburbs have become almost devoid of non-human parts of nature, to the extent that is can be easy to forget the resources (and habitat destruction) that went into building those places, and the nature that is continually depleted in order to feed them. Let’s bring nature back.

For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we simply ask that you spend time appreciating nature. Aim to connect yourself with your local environment each day this week. You could take a walk in your neighbourhood admiring gardens and reserves, stroll along a beach observing different types of shells or seaweed. Get out in the garden and observe the ecosystem you’re part of. Look for patterns in nature. If you can, venture further afield and visit a National Park and immerse yourself in some wilder nature, where nutrient, water, carbon and waste cycles do their thang with minimal human intervention. By observing and appreciating nature, we can learn better ways to be part of it, rather than apart from it.

If you just can’t make it out during the week, watch a cool nature doco to appreciate nature further away. Here are some entertaining, beautiful and thought-provoking ones that explore our connection with nature: