Harmony with Nature: Finding a Path Forward?
The future is . . . . .?
I have to admit that I love the flowery, birds-chirping image that the words “harmony with nature” conjures when I read them. Can you see it now?
Pretty humans standing in a wild flower field, sun shining, rays caressing their healthy smiling faces, birds undoubtedly singing in rhapsody. . . . and then cue the record scratch. . . what planet are you on?
Instead, our modern legacy looks more like bellowing smoke stacks, rivers of garbage, oceans of plastic, drought and raging wild fires, melting ice caps and rapid biodiversity loss. . . . none of that looks like harmony with nature. In fact, most of that doesn’t even look survivable.
So how can we find harmony with nature living in this near-apocalyptic world? It’s a question that comes to mind all too often for me, and one that I will be exploring in this new section “Naturally” of The Naturalized Human newsletter. I wanted to call the section “One Earth”, but that would likely have caused copywrite issues, so I settled for the other title. Here we go . . . .
One Earth Principles
At the big-picture planetary scale, the problem is obvious. There is only one planet on which we all live, and the rate at which humans are using up resources, polluting water, and causing catastrophic ecosystem shifts has us on a doomsday trajectory. Make no mistake that the planet will keep turning, because it will. It just might be doing that without humans.
Because if there is one certainty in this conversation about sustainability and the planet, it is that humans cannot survive on the planet alone. We need plants and animals. There will be no human life without them. The more we poke holes in the fabric of interconnected ecosystems, the closer we get to negative cascades and irreversible species loss. If we lose enough species and systems, we are going to go extinct too.
Somehow we need to rein in our insane consumption habits, redefine our economic systems from constant growth to some kind of cycle, and refocus food production away from hyper-processed crap to real nutrients that create mental and physical health for the 8 billion people on the plant. Easy, right?
The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals do not get enough air time in my books. Instead of intelligent discussion on our progress towards ecological harmony and living within planetary limits, the evening news is little more than the latest death toll from a disgruntled shooter, tragedies from the war zones, and the economic toll from the last super-storm. You could probably choose any random day from the last decade and see a similar news cast. (Truth be told I only listen to radio news now - it is somewhat better for my mental health).
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you cannot have endless economic growth from fixed resources. We are slamming into real physical and cyclical limits of what our planet and ecosystems can support.
The ideas of degrowth (1970’s) and doughnut economics (2017) have been around for some time now. If you haven’t read Kate Raworth’s book, I highly recommend it. In a nutshell, the doughnut is the “sweet spot” in which we can thrive on this planet:
“Between social and planetary boundaries lies an environmentally safe and socially just space in which humanity can thrive. (ref)”
We have the power collectively to change what is happening. What we don’t have is more time and resources to keep creating billionaires while more and more people live without adequate food, water, shelter, sanitation and medical care.
Take the for-profit system for food as just one example that is failing us all. Instead of feeding hungry people, we have epic food waste and production systems geared disproportionately to creating ultra-processed junk instead of nutritious food. These problems are solvable, and yet they are unlikely to be solved under our current economic model.
One earth principles are the foundation of living in harmony with nature. We need to see ourselves not only as the solution, but as an integral part of nature itself. We are all connected. We are all dependent on the same global systems. We all need food, water and shelter to survive. We are in this boat together.
What does ecological harmony look like?
If you think I am in favor of going back in time to pre-industrial living, you would be wrong. But I do think each and every one of us can start stepping in the direction of ecological harmony. It probably looks very different for each one of us.
For me, I live on a 16 acre farm. Ecological harmony for me looks like raising more of my own food, creating habitat, planting a food forest, and learning to cope with the pressures of wildlife pushing back against my agrarian dreams.
If you live in an apartment in the city, none of these actions are feasible or reasonable for you. But what could you do?
You can still grow food even if you live in the city (be sure to subscribe and stay tuned to the “Growing Food” section of The Naturalized Human newsletter. I will be covering all kinds of food production methods, from kitchen microgreens through to small farm options).
Even if you are convinced you can’t grow food (and I’m going to work hard to change your mind), there are many other ways to approach ecological harmony. You can:
choose local foods over imports, which gives you higher food quality, lower food miles, and keeps farm land in your area in production.
reduce food waste, which can account for almost 40% of the food produced.
switch to an electric vehicle or take public transit, which are viable options in most modern cities.
waste less water.
Perhaps most importantly of all, we can each commit to consuming less stuff. I was truly jaw-dropped on a recent trip to a nearby city last month, by the endless blocks of big box stores and shopping malls. Mile after mile of them. All I could think of was that 90% or more of everything in those stores would be in a landfill in 5 years or less (note - I am just making that number up . . .I don’t know the real number, but I doubt I am wrong on this and it’s a frightening thought).
Not only would everything in the stores right now be in the landfills, but so will the next shipment of stuff, and the one after that, and so on. What an insane system! And this is what is considered to be good for the economy . . . . and it’s what’s killing the planet.
It’s not like I don’t buy anything, because I do. But I can say with certainty I buy a LOT less now than ever before. And buying less disposable crap is something we can all do.
The world became fixated on plastic straws there for a while. Great. But stopping all the plastic straws in the world doesn’t move the needle when you look at the real culprits of ecological damage, like that being created by endless irrational decisions to buy junk or to replace perfectly functioning items with the latest trend. It’s time to take a step back and think.
We aren’t likely to find ecological harmony by using a paper straw. It doesn’t look like annual tropical vacations, living off fast food, throwing away usable clothes, or dumping electronics. On the other end of the spectrum, ecological harmony doesn’t look like food bank line ups, tent cities, and kids going to school hungry either.
What can you do?
That is the question we each get to ask ourselves.
As we read about the latest flood, wildfire, super-storm or drought, as we watch food prices soar while farmers go bankrupt, as we see medical care slip further and further out of reach for more and more people, we get to ask that question.
My suggestion is to pick one thing. Start there.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s easy to put change off until tomorrow. But here’s the reality check: The solutions have been talked about for more than 50 years. The time to start is definitely now.
In the end it doesn’t matter if you are for ecological harmony and one earth principles or pro-economic growth, a climate change denier, or a raving capitalist . . . in the end it will come down to damage to crops, too much or too little water, breaks in the supply chain and food will become your number one priority almost in an instant.
Pick one thing and start there. Then pick another one.
That’s how we find the path forward. That’s where harmony with nature can begin.
In the coming weeks, I will be sharing information, research and interviews I have collected on the concept of sustainability and ecological harmony, here under the ‘Naturally’ section of The Naturalized Human newsletter. I hope you will join me in finding solutions that you can champion and move forward in your own life and in your community.
And I hope, as you become familiar with my work and benefit from these ideas, that you will support this work as a paying subscriber or super-fan. Your contribution enables me to go further, reach more people, and support change.
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