Once in a while, an actor of the struggles of sustainability is taking over the blog to express their joy, anger, annoyance or just comment about anything they care about in the sustainable world. This is an open space, so their opinion may differ from mine, but this is what the world is about. Have a good read!
Charlotte Hawthorne
When we think about sustainability, it’s easy to get wrapped up in global issues which feel outside of our control- soil depletion, flooding, ocean acidification, groundwater contamination… However, environmental issues are not environmental at all, but behavioural. We sometimes lack the ability to look within ourselves in the face of the roots of our behaviours; engage in deep questioning regarding how we have come to where we are, what assumptions underlie our behaviours, which values guide them...
Deep behind our unsustainable behaviours is an idea about the environment rooted in separation. We are here, and the environment is out there somewhere. We have separate mental concepts of “us” and “nature”, and an underlying feeling of separation which is reflected in our language. We decide to “give up meat to save the planet” and buy reusable bags with slogans like “be good to nature”. We feel like we have to give something up so that nature can gain something.
The way we use these words reflect what some call the Dominant Social Paradigm, the “collection of norms, beliefs, values, habits, and so on that form the world view most commonly held within a culture”, or the social lens through which we interpret our social world. Our current dominant social paradigm involves humans being separate from nature, a worldview which has grown stronger since our adoption of agriculture: Man > woman > animals > plants > rocks and soil. Therefore we “use” natural resources in a disconnected way leading to the problems we have today, contrasting with indigenous tribal peoples who understand human-land interactions in inclusive, connected ways such as “borrowing”, “caring”, or simply being at home. Other assumptions of Western thought, apart from “humans are separate from, and superior to, nature”, are:
- Nature can and should be controlled
- Individuals have a right to maximum personal economic gain
- Progress equals growth
However, what if there is a different way of seeing things? A New Environmental Paradigm” would reflect a worldview which is more sustainable, encompassing ecological principles such as:
- All life is interdependent
- Small actions can cause big consequences
- Life systems are circular
- There are limits to growth
- Diversity equals resilience
- Upstream solutions are better than downstream ones
Do you think there are ways to shift towards the new environmental paradigm, a new worldview?
In 2015, I decided to join my then-partner WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) in Canada for three months, living with hosts off Vancouver Island whom had mostly built their own houses and grew vegetables organically. During this time, I have never felt so curious about the world, so connected to myself and my surroundings, so in flat-out awe of nature’s beauty and fascinated by the interconnectedness of all things. I also had a strong desire to learn about everything around me. The feeling that animals, plants, food, soil, landscapes, and all my natural surroundings at that time had an intrinsic value in themselves was present. All elements seemed to work together to create a whole, in cyclical, closed-looped ways- and this was fascinating. I guess I had what people call a “spiritual experience”. I even cried when walking through the national park on Galiano Island! My whole body feeling overwhelmed with the beauty of the place- as if a spirit of some sort had genuinely brushed over me. Some hippie dippie shit right there (which I totally embrace).
I got thinking… what brought me to have these deep feelings of fascination, connection, and love for the natural world? And how is it possible that these experiences have been so profound to change the way I see the world and my interactions with it? I think there was a combination of (1) prolonged contact, interactions and encounters with nature- both wild and constructed, (2) gardening, harvesting, walking and cooking as meditative practices, and (3) experiential and self-directed learning; all feeding into the overall experience. While WWOOFing, we engaged in hours of gardening, walking, and discovering areas overflowing with life and beauty. Some people would call most of our WWOOFer tasks as embodied interactions with land and our experiences as encounters with the natural world. These words represent people-place interactions endowed with meaning.
“We had gone out alone like heroes on a grail quests in search of dramatic and important visions that would guide our lives and make our decisions for us. Instead, we found in tiny scale and modest simplicity perfection all around us” - Robert Greenway, a wilderness leader who has seen the profound transformations which take place on extended stays in the wilderness, many times carried over to dramatic changes when people return to everyday urban life.
The notion of embodiment is grounded in the idea that we experience the world through our bodies and when we interact this way (such as when gardening) we cultivate meanings, emotions, memories and affections with our surroundings. Embodied interactions with the natural world seem to fuel beliefs which are similar to those outlined in the New Environmental Paradigm, as well as a sense of place and belonging which encompasses the natural world.
Think a moment about allotment holders and community gardeners- they are continuously interacting with soil and co-creating spaces which encompass nature. In the process, they end up reflecting on their relationship to nature and can develop an intimate and personal connection and understanding of the natural world. Some studies have shown they feel a responsibility towards non-human others as a “natural impulse” rather than a burdensome imposition. By investing time and energy into a place for nature and people, a connection to place and a broader sense of belonging arises. It seems as though using our bodies, hands, and senses when we interact with nature allows us to learn with heart and head and feel a connection with the garden as well as the whole biosphere represented through that garden. In one paper I read on the topic, one gardener who had tended the same plot for 18 years claimed he “knew every grain of soil… personally”.
I believe that when we interact in an embodied way with nature, we are more likely to experience encounter. This term tries to portray the experience of truly meeting another being and recognising their particular wholeness. It is not an intellectual understanding, but an understanding with our hearts and souls. I will never be able to explain this concept better than Stephan Harding in this video, a snippet from the documentary on David Flemming’s life and work Lean Logic, and this lovely quote from Flemming’s book:
“The starting point for encounter, then, is the hallo reaction, the acknowledgement that there is something there which is ‘quick’—which has the gift of life, self, soul and the ability to surprise.”
To me, encounters with nature foster the feeling that nature has value in itself- not as a resource to be used- but something to be loved and respected for simply what it is. It would do us a great deal of good to close our textbooks, turn off our laptops, and get outside to wake up the body and soul. Immerse yourself in wilderness, camp in the woods, touch the soil with your hands and pull out a carrot, listen to the birds and the wind; look outwards with your senses (not our intellectual brain) to realise just how much you are part of the world as the world part of you.
During my time in Canada, I feel like my mind shifted towards a new environmental paradigm. This shift in parts of my belief system continued after returning to my urban life in London- I was eager to make changes in the way I lived. I was curious about my local environment and wanted to find creative ways to solve “environmental” and social issues near my home, volunteer, and… I was generally happier, with more meaning in my actions, interests, and relationships. Material things meant much less to me and were seen as a burden in many ways.
There is an interesting field in Psychology - too hippie for some- coined Ecopsychology. Ecopsychologists believe the illness of the earth reflects an illness of the mind and want to recover people’s repressed connection to non-human nature, ultimately restoring a sense of responsibility for the biosphere and all beings in it including ourselves. Healing the mind equates to healing the earth. When I came across these readings, I identified with the process I underwent in Canada.
“At the core of the human mind is the ecological unconscious, repression of which causes madness in industrial society; to heal, people must become aware of their fundamental, primal connection to their ecological home" (Glendinning, 1993; Shepard, 1998).
Repression of the ecological unconscious means disconnection from the ecological self. When people mistakenly perceive themselves as separate from, and independent of, their ecological context, they abuse the environment with which they feel no identification, connection, or empathy. They try to fulfil spiritual and intrinsic needs with extrinsic material goods (Kanner & Gomes, 1995; Kasser, 2009).
Through ecologically based transcendent experience, people can reconnect with the ecological unconscious and reclaim their ecological selves. Techniques to do so include mindful contact with nature, wilderness trips, reflective rituals, and ecotherapy (Roszak, Gomes, & Kanner, 1995).
Recovery of the ecological self leads to sustainable behaviour. When people act from the ecological self, they do not have to try and make environmentally responsible choices. Instead, choices are naturally less intrusive and less toxic because people care about those whose wellbeing their behaviour affects (Bragg, 1996; Naess, 1985; Thomashow, 1995).
Maybe these kinds of transcendent experiences in wild nature, such as encounters and embodied interactions, would help us transition from the dominant social paradigm to the new environmental paradigm in society and reconnect with our “ecological selves”. These experiences stop us from overusing our left brain hemisphere dedicated to linear, analytic approaches which focus on bits of a whole - and awaken the beauty locked in our right hemisphere - the capacity for a holistic, systems thinking approach; seeing and feeling a connectedness, a whole, a bigger picture.
Wouldn’t it be great if people no longer felt they had to “give something up for nature”, but felt the urge to heal as part of nature? To further ideas rooted in connection, inclusiveness, and self-transcendence?
References
Dominant Social Paradigm - DSP: Pirages & Ehrlich (1974)
New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) - Dunlap and van Liere (1978)
Study on community gardening as an embodied practice - Turner (2011):
The key tenets of Ecopsychology above are outlined in Scott, Amel, Koger & Manning in Psychology for Sustainability 4th Edition.