From domination to restoration

We are nature. Great. But then what?

The reframing of ourselves as nature is an important conceptual realisation. But it's neither necessary nor sufficient to restoring our relationship to the rest of the living world. (But that's not to say it can't be extremely meaningful)

What it does, is remind us that we can't remove ourselves from consequence. We are not a separate creation. We need air, food and water. We co-evolved over millions of years. Plucking ourselves out of this snaps fundamental threads that unravel the rest. We are not some sort of artificial or alien intelligence. We can't tech-bro our way out of here.

For some lucky people this realisation is enough to start a deep connection to the rest of the living world. And provide purpose and drive.

For me, and maybe you, realising you are part of the living is the start, not the end.

Nature isn't a benevolent entity. We are, after all, creating the sixth mass extinction event, not the first. So being part of nature doesn't stop us being destructive. It just makes us realise we're being self-destructive. And there is no shortage of examples of how we are capable of destroying other people, or ourselves.

What is important, is that we have co-evolved with the rest of the living world over millions of years. What that means in a practical sense is that 'care' is built into any stable ecological system. Not as a benevolent mother nature. But as an intricate web of niches, interdependencies and interactions that self-regulate.

We can feel this when we walk through an old wood. A deep sense of calm. Because over hundreds of thousands of years we have learnt that when we walk in trees and hear birdsong, there is low threat, we can relax. And we the can feel happiness. Seeing sunlight break through canopy, noticing the different life growing and moving. Wandering in body and mind. This is learnt at a deep un-understandable level. The type of learning that means a bird can fall from the nest and up into the air, that a swift can fly away from a storm, that a butterfly can migrate. You can pick apart pieces of it, but the whole of it remains wonderful and mysterious.

Contrast this to our concrete landscape, filled with competition for every second of our attention. Car horns, flashing lights, garish colours. And we escape this into a screen that is even worse. With armies of people behind the scenes, working out new ways to startle us into paying attention. Priming our instinctive desires, wearing us down, reducing us to consumers. No wonder even imagining a walk through a wood can feel calming.

What is more important than 'being nature' is being humble about the living world. Much that is precious about it, is because it is 'other' and mysterious. And it reminds us that we are also 'other' and mysterious. We walk in a world we did not create. It provides a source of knowledge, learning and feeling that - whilst it thrives - can never run dry.

We get confused because we have given too much importance to domination. We think because we can cut down a forest, we are more important than it. Because we can dissect a frog, we understand it. That turning an ecosystem into resources means we have captured its value.

On a simple species level, the cutting down of a forest, the dissection of a frog, is natural. It's how humans shape their environment. Like a beaver gnawing at a tree to create a dam.

The challenge for us is not, how do we become more natural, but how do we become a planetary species. How do we exist in a way that is beneficial for the rest of the living world.

Domination has been a solution. It has been an evolutionarily successful strategy for many humans at risk from their environment. This means it runs deep in our culture. We kill people and other animals that are a danger to us. We clear and take over land to create habitat for us and our families. This is as natural as vultures circling a dying animal.

But now that has become self-destructive.

This has happened before. Plants nearly destroyed the world, at least twice. They were responsible for waves of mass-extinction.

First through roots. These allowed plants to extract nutrients from the earth. And then dump them above ground when they died. These quickly washed out to sea. Creating huge algae blooms choking off huge amounts of life by irrevocably changing their environment. Wiping out thousands of species

Secondly through wood. The ability to suck carbon out of the air and use it to grow. This was hugely successful and no organism existed at that time that could break wood down. These plants grew and thrived. Over hundreds of years more and more carbon was taken from the air into wood that didn't decompose. So much so that they altered the climate. Until species (such as fungi) evolved that could, and so the planet's climate became stable again.

Life on earth tends towards different stable ecosystems. The most basic is devoid of life beyond micro-organisms. This is how life on earth first and longest. Complex life needs time and space, rare conditions and unusual chance. The more complex, those that support a high degree of biodiversity, take the longest to re-emerge once gone. The time it takes to reform a rainforest is several orders of magnitude more than a grassland. If it happens at all.

I work in restoration, so I see the beauty and potential of bringing life back to land. But that shouldn't mask the danger and tragedy of destroying life elsewhere. When we turn a species or an ecosystem into resources and money, we are losing an infinite of value, not creating it. The conditions that created specific rainforest could be unrepeatable. Perhaps akin to the likelihood of the dodo re-evolving.

Much of this destruction is understandable at an individual level. It is humans human-ing The instinct to provide for our loved ones is natural. But we risk locking our children in a bank vault.

We - hopefully - can self-regulate better than plants. And ensure the world we are part of is full of life. What that needs is re-learning. Whilst domination has been a successful strategy, there are others.

One approach could be to take principles from restoration. What if the goal is to create and maintain a thriving ecosystem?

As I’ve been working on my project three principles seem central to success:

- we know (and will always know) less than we don't, take action with humility not certainty

- strive to go from simple to complex, complexity is richness

- bring love back to the earth, as a source of life

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What would you add?