Reconnecting to what really matters...

 During the pre-industrial age, our ancestors lived hand to mouth. If they needed vegetables and crops, they planted them. They sowed seeds into the soil. If they needed fertiliser for the crops, they would utilise their livestock manure. Milk would come from their cows or the dairy farmer they knew down the road. In preparation for winter, they would collect firewood and must light communally fires to keep warm and cook food together. If they were lost, they would look to the stars to find their way or tell if a storm was coming by the way the winds were blowing or how the birds were flying. Their answers were always in nature, their source of life and survival. 

Today, we rely on the national grid that is powered by fossil fuels. With an accessible switch of a button, we are warm and our food that we quickly purchased from the supermarket is cooking in the oven. This food was not only cheap but is probably highly processed and produced on the other side of the world or we’re not entirely sure of its source. Our Sunday roasts are predominantly factory farmed meat, and our vegetables and fruits kept ‘fresh’ by the addition of preservatives and plastic wrapping that won’t begin to decompose for the next 20 to 100 years in landfill. 

Where did it all go wrong? 

On a planet that is 4 billion years old, homo sapiens, the humans of today, are only 315,000 years old. In that time, we have evolved from Africa, discovered the world, conquered lands, created the wheel, learnt how to be violent and go to war against each other and industrialised to a point where we are now pressurising the survival of both flora and fauna globally as well as ourselves. Since the industrial revolution, we have discovered and utilised the earth's natural resources of oil and gas and subsequently emitted over 3 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Today, we are living in a climate that has reached its danger level of increasing above 1.5 degrees Celsius that is changing the resilience of biodiversity, causing species to decline and natural disasters to increase dramatically.

To halve global emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, annual cuts in emissions of 7-10 percent are required. This aim will of course require many actions but reducing our reliance on harmful fuels such as coal, is top of the list. Coal is known as a ‘dirty’ fuel and currently produces a third of our greenhouse gas emissions worldwide like finite oil supplies we persistently drill for and gas supplying our national grid.

Deeply consumed within the Anthropocene, a geological age in which humans are dominating everything, the destiny of the planet and the natural world is in our hands. The choices we make in the next 8-10 years will determine our future on this earth and the survival of nature and its resources we so greatly rely upon. However, living within a materialistic and dis-connected society disables us from realising where our food and resources come from and just how fast time is running out. 

Waking up

Connecting to our impact on the natural world and local environments relates to the concept of biophilia. This is an inherent human need to connect with nature and all the life that lives within us. It relays the fact that we are not isolated from nature or dominant over it even if we have developed world renowned technologies.

As custodians of the planet, biophilia states that we seek connections with nature emotionally and genetically.

Our genetic makeup is reflected throughout the natural world, and we share much of it with the species that are rapidly declining because of our man-made lifestyles. Across the western world we are consumed by societies tick boxes of getting a degree, a successful job, a car, a house and going on holiday once a year. Yet now is our time for hope and action. It is time to be accountable for the crisis we have created and collectively incorporate the solutions we have in place to rebuild ecosystems and prevent further natural disasters globally. 

To reconnect much of the western societies back to the natural world, researchers have focused on working out just how powerful the cognitive benefits of nature and being outdoors are for us. By feeling and realising these benefits in our busy, urban dwelling, lives a sense of activism and collective consciousness is created where people want to do more for their local environments. Therefore, instead of living in ‘red-mind’ states of stress surrounded by screens, deadlines and advertisements people can be switched to blue or green mind states of calm and reflection in natural spaces. 

Dr Wallace J Nichols states that we know more about the effect chocolate or red wine has on our brains than the natural world and our oceans which has much better long term meditative effects for humanity.

Nichols calls this ‘Neuro - Conservation’, a simple and logical concept that incorporates the cognitive benefits of nature and the services it provides for us therefore generating a complete picture whereby the interests of both humans and nature are intertwined. Society may then realise that we can only move forward with nature and not against it ruling as the dominant species on planet earth. 

The crux of our issues isn’t how to solve ecosystem decline and where we’ll get power or electricity from if we move away from fossil fuels. It’s in our failure to adapt and not be dependent on something we know is morally wrong but lining the pockets of a lot of CEO’s. We need to pressurise change even more. As customers, we must demand it. As pension fund contributors, employees and general custodians of planet earth, we must demand nature positive and nature first business initiatives not just for the ego boost that being green does for us but for the sake of survival. 

We must be open to be educated and confront these topics that may make us feel uncomfortable and want to switch off because what is worse? Sticking your head in the sand while it warms up to a point of no return or facing some difficult truths and learning how to be more responsible?