Longing for the Earth

There is a spectrum of human response to the natural world, from seeing it a resource to be exploited for human benefit on the one hand through to seeing humanity as part of a single living system. From the Environmentalist point of view, the destruction of natural habitats, pollution and climate change are all primarily threats to human well-being and as such they are potential disasters. Deep Ecology takes this a stage further and doesn’t really distinguish between humans and all other life. From a Deep Ecology point of view, humans are almost the disease! The rest of Nature would recover and continue without us if we were gone. However, without bacteria, everything else would be dead within days if not hours. And what about the seas without plankton? And ‘…once the bees are gone, the humans have got ten years’. (Albert Einstein) There are various ideas that offer us potential paths towards this kind of ecological balance and I summarise them here under the headings: Gaia, Noble Savage, New Age, Pantheism and Spiritual Transcendence. Gaia. James Lovelock. Still essentially a scientific systems theory, but using the name of a goddess to describe the theory has resulted in his book never going out of print, as well as endowing it with a quasi-religious status. (Imagine if it were called, ‘The Hypothesis of Self-Regulative Processes of the Biosphere’ – its original title!) Whether accepted as pure science or not, the Gaia hypothesis has been inspirational to many who look to live a life more in tune with Nature and to look for ways that the environment may be protected. Noble Savage. Ideas of Back to Nature and the Noble Savage as well as stories such as the Garden of Eden have instilled our own and other cultures with the idea that there was a time when humans lived in deep harmony with Nature. A recovery of this original state, perhaps by way of spiritual progress, will in turn instigate a deeper respect and care for the environment. New Age. Again this covers a wide range of beliefs, but often suggests a new Paradigm, a single step change of our mindset, which will herald a new age in which we will be in tune with Nature. Pantheism. Basically the idea that God is Nature or Nature is God. This belief, in turn, fosters the idea of Nature being sacred, as a result – it is hoped – the honouring of Nature will lead to a much deeper respect and care for the planet and her eco-systems. Spiritual Transcendence. The idea that we will be brought into harmony with Nature by way of a spiritual advance which will transcend and include our currently fragmented view of reality. In a way all of these views, even the first, find the idea of purely human efforts to deal with the environmental crisis likely to be insufficient to the scale of the problem. As such, they suggest that only a transformation of consciousness and/or a spiritual transformation would be needed. Some authors though (in particular, Ken Wilber) see a development of consciousness occurring as a natural development of humanity. Put simply, consciousness is moving from ego-centric thought to eco-centric. This is explored below. The evolution of human thought goes through various stages. We all pass through these stages as we grow up, but so too does humanity as a species as it evolves. One way to represent this would be with the following stages: Bio-Centric. Unable to distinguish our own identity or physicality from our surroundings. A baby does not know where its body stops and the outside world begins. Ego-Centric. Aware of our separate identity and totally self-centred. Unable to take on the role of the other, to empathise with other people. Ethno-Centric/Socio-Centric. Aware of others and extending rights and privileges to a small group such as family members, a tribe, a nation, an ethnicity or a religion. Some writers suggest 90% of the world is currently at this stage of development. World-Centric. Extending rights and privileges to all of humanity, irrespective of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. 10% of the world? Eco-Centric. Extending rights and privileges to all species, as well as to the entire biosphere as a single entity. Less than 0.1% of the world? Many countries have at least put in place legislation towards enforcing the World-Centric view and await their populations to catch up. We are beginning to see suggestions towards Eco-Centric legislation. There is therefore a hierarchy – or holarchy – of consciousness if you like. This does not necessarily imply any obligation to move up the hierarchy – say from ego-centric to ethno-centric. Nor is there any necessary link between what might be described as ‘spiritual growth’ and a particular level of consciousness. The holarchy does however lead to a change in values. As the range of consciousness is expanded, from ego to eco, there is an ever-expanding realisation that value resides outside of the self. Any personal subjective values must then be contiguous with values inherent in ever-expanding circles of compassion. In this sense, value is not merely subjective, but becomes transcendent. Some authors identify the ecological crisis as primarily an ‘aesthetic’ crisis. This might seem a strange proposition at first sight, and indeed different authors mean something different by ‘aesthetic’. But if we take it to mean an aesthetic in the broadest sense of all that constitutes ‘the good life’ then linking this to Ecology raises some interesting points. If there is a crisis then first of all the implication is being made that we are not achieving a good life. And there is even the implication that we may not even recognise what a good life is! But I don’t want to consider this in terms of an ecological crisis. Instead I want to ask what it means to have a relationship with Nature – with the planet, with Earth. And let’s not get distracted by the subtle point that’s someone’s made, to the effect that saying we might ‘have a relationship’ with Nature already implies a separation. But yes, certainly, it’s true to say we are Nature. What does it mean? I can really only speak of my own experience here, and I’m fairly sure that the experience of other people will often be different from my own. Indeed, the whole point of this ‘longing for the Earth’ is that there’s a concern that many folk appear not to be engaged with Nature at all and don’t seem to take the idea of engagement with Nature in any way seriously. This, however, might be a misreading of things on my part. Perhaps there are people who appear not to care too much but who are actually unwilling or unable to give voice to their feelings. Or perhaps there is a felt connection – an emotional and bodily connection – that has a deep impact on people even although they might not register this in conscious thought. For my own part, I’d say that my relationship with Nature is ambiguous. Sometimes she appears completely indifferent to us. She is often a cruel mistress. But sometimes she is benign, welcoming, and even magical and enchanted. I pick up on her moods – and I’m sure that, in this at least, I share common ground with most other people. Aside from mood though, a relationship with Nature is about a relationship with particular places and particular trees, plants, animals and birds. I find it helps to slow down and just spend time looking and listening. There’s usually whole worlds of activity going on if we just stop long enough to notice it. Dear reader, I recognise that what I’ve said here is nothing new or radical! I wish I had something more unique and astonishing to tell you! But, then again, perhaps it is better that the message is not something startling, because, I think, our Western culture has a tendency to find quick, radical ‘fixes’ and this usually involves some expensive gadgets and special clothing! Instead, I think, Nature is asking us to be still, to be quiet, to take time, to listen. There is not some specific ‘lesson’ that’s there for us to learn. In fact, there might not even be a conscious lesson to be learnt at all. But I think that spending time with Nature shifts our perceptions. The human world seems hurried and anxious – fixated on things that now start to seem irrelevant. People seem distracted – caught up in their own stories and struggling to understand why the rest of the world doesn’t seem to understand or even notice what seems obvious and important to them. But, all the while, the more-than-human world tells us our own personal stories are trivial things. It would be better laughing at our own seriousness and relaxing into the strange, shifting stories of Nature. The more-than-human world offers us multiple paths to peace. So, there’s no great message her except this – watch and listen – keep watching, keep listening – and let the Earth shape you in whatever way she chooses.