“As long as nature is seen as in some way outside us, frontiered and foreign, separate, it is lost both to us and in us.” (John Fowles)

Thanks to our past actions and the actions of our predecessors, the ecosystems of the Earth are at a point of decimation. The next few years are crucial for the survival of our Earth - If we don’t learn how to live in harmony with our environment and with all living beings, we rapidly work towards our own self-descruction. In a world where we’ve lost sight of the fact that we need to breathe, eat, and drink, and that all of these essential things are threatened by our careless actions, where are we to turn for answers on how to reverse the negative consequences of our “consumer culture”?

Awareness
Everything starts with awareness, or, as Daniel Goldman calls it: ‘Ecological Intelligence’. Watch The Story of Stuff. Educate yourself about the products that you use. Where do they come from? How are they produced? Read the labels and replace toxic products with non-toxic products. What’s right for the environment is usually right for your own body as well. It is probably no coincidence that increasing cancer rates and environmental decline go hand in hand! As a consumer, you have much more power than you may believe. Choices are not just made by politicians and multi-nationals, choices are made by the voter and the consumer. Companies shape the products they offer to their customers needs. But we can be much more than consumers in this world, and many people are beginning to see this. We can give back to the earth, and create a net positive impact on the world, in fact, this is the only way our species can survive, at this point.

Science & Technology
Designer and architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart noted in their book “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things”, that we are accustomed to thinking of industry and the environment as being at odds with one another. But what if humans designed products and systems that celebrate an abundance of human creativity, culture, and productivity? That are so intelligent and safe, our species leaves an ecological footprint to delight in, not lament? McDonough and various other architects and scientists have proven that such a society is possible, including Jacque Fresco’s Venus Project.

Our place in the world
There is a broad consensus among some of the most brilliant people on the planet that our problems are not “out there”, but that they originate internally, in the nature of our minds. Dr. David Bohm, a quantum physicist who made dramatic contributions to theoretical physics, philosophy and neuropsychology, among other fields, is here echoing the concerns of many of his scientific colleagues – some of whom are now beginning to see in their research the underlying issue facing humanity: western society’s inability to see the true interconnectedness of all things, especially our connection to nature.

What Bohm and many other scientists are telling us, and what many ancient ways of knowledge have been teaching humanity for centuries, is that we are connected to nature and the world around us through much more than just physical constructs. However, our very thought patterns have tricked us into functioning as if we are not. With an expanded consciousness, in which we recognize our interconnectedness, and develop a more complete and holistic vision of our inseparable relationship to each other, the planet and the universe as a whole, we can become aware of the true effects we have on our environment and the world at large and begin to curb our destructive behaviour.

Bohm: “Meaning is the bridge between consciousness and matter… …Meaning enfolds the whole world into me, and vice versa – that enfolded meaning is unfolded as action, through my body and then through the world… …I say meaning is being! So any transformation of society must result in a profound change of meaning. Any change of meaning for the individual would change the whole…”

Perhaps it is indeed time to further explore relationships with ourselves, nature and the world at large which bring meaning to our lives. Maybe then we could see that these relationships make up the very fabric of our world, and that they need conscious attention if we want to preserve nature.

Pulitzer-Prize winning sociobiologist, Dr. Edward Wilson of Harvard, has even found evidence that as part of nature people have an inherent need to be in contact with the natural world. He calls it “biophilia.” But the truth is we are nature. At the most profound level we are our environment.

The wholeness of our being, involving relations of meaning between ourselves, our communities and nature can only be renewed once we look within, rekindle our ties without, and join these in spiritual (conscious) union. Only then will we begin to see that true development is a process of personal growth, and not material gain (Trent Rhode).

For more information about environmental changes that are threatening the Planet and about what your role is and can be in this story, watch The Story of Stuff (funny) and Home (beautiful filming), or just Take Action!