Some Thoughts on Participatory Ecology
Stop Trying to “Take Care of Nature”
We must take care of Nature!
“Be stewards of the Environment!” “TOP TEN WAYS TO TAKE CARE OF OUR PLANET”
What a nice idea, taking care of “Nature” (whatever that is)! It makes us think of cleaning streams, throwing litter into the proper receptacles, recycling at home, buying organic. All good, to be sure, but are they really “taking care of Nature?” These sentiments are so ingrained in environmentalist circles that it’s likely not many of us have really considered what they say about the worldview that produced them.
Essentially, saying “We must take care of Nature” implies that humanity has dominion over it.
“Take care of Nature” means “humans are responsible for keeping Nature healthy.” In reality, the opposite is true: “Nature” is responsible for keeping US healthy, because humans and “Nature” are part of the same System. Nature isn’t something you “Go To.”
Reframing how we see “Nature” is going to take some work.
“TEN REASONS TO ESCAPE TO NATURE” “GET BACK TO NATURE THIS WEEKEND!” “25 INSPIRING NATURE QUOTES TO MAKE YOU WANT TO GO OUTSIDE AND EXPLORE NATURE” “It’s time to get out in nature and explore the places you are helping protect.”
The implication, of course, is that Nature is something Other, something we don’t participate in unless we GO to it. This isn’t, however, the case. We absolutely NEED to see NATURE as something in which we already participate.
Nature isn’t just a collection of biosystems outside of your house; it’s a process in which entities participate. Nature is an “exchange of goods and services” via a network of nodes and connections.
Saying “Escape to Nature” is meaningless. It’s like telling an octopus to “Escape to the Sea,” or a bear to “Escape to the Forest.” It’s like telling a variable to “Escape to an Algorithm.”
You don’t need a tent or hiking boots or a long drive to the “middle of nowhere” to experience Nature; the fact is, you can’t NOT experience Nature.
What does this mean, exactly? It means there is no “Wild” versus “Urban.” It means that the value of entities isn’t in the entities themselves, but in the connections and exchanges between them. The better the connections and exchanges of mutually beneficial services in a system, the more value that system has. Valuable Systems — be they forests, cities, workplaces, rivers, the ‘soil food web’ — consist of entities working together to benefit all of the individual parts of the system.
Taking Nature out of the equation by separating it, framing it as something to “visit,” collapses the value function of the System called “Life on Earth.”
Understanding “Nature” as something in which we participate, not as an “Other,” is a kind of “gnosis” — a revelatory event that changes the way you see and interact with the world.
Really, when you look at all of the ways in which it is suggested that we “take care of nature,” they’re actually things like “fix the mess YOU ALREADY MADE.” Being a good “steward of the environment” means “Stop POISONING YOUR OWN FOOD.” “Taking care of the planet” means “DON’T THROW YOUR PLASTIC IN YOUR DRINKING WATER.”
Saying “Take Care of the Planet” is like saying “Take your indentured servant to the doctor after you’ve overworked and beaten him.”
It’s really an Imperialist concept with roots in Christian Dominianism. Environmentalists who advise us to be “stewards of the planet,” however well-meaning, come from the same place as those awful evangelical Christians who think pollution is fine since “God” gave us power over the whole Earth and the Second Coming is happening any day now so?
So, here’s an idea: instead of saying “Take Care of Nature,” how about we start saying “Treat Nature as an Equal?”
Rivers, trees, rocks, plants, animals, insects — these are all people, with the same intrinsic value as humans. Yes, we interact with them in ways that often change them, just as they interact with us in ways that change us. It’s because our relationship to Nature isn’t one of power or control; it’s a series of transactions among equals.
(Yes, sometimes those transactions entail one equal eating another.)
It’s a subtle distinction, a slight change in conceptualization, but I know from personal experience that making this change has profound impacts on the way we interact with the world around us. The more people who see other people as people, the better chances we’ll have to make it through the coming climate changes, together.
Most animist cultures have always known this. Maybe it’s time for the rest of us to catch on.