Office, Washington, DC.
World Health Organization (1948) Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference. Official Records of the World Health Organization 2, 100.
2
Human Perceptions of Nature
At the heart of commons-based cultural systems is the recognition that diversity, biological, linguistic and cultural, must be protected as a means of survival.
R. Martusewicz (2005, p. 340)
To better understand humans’ connection to nature and the relationship between human health and natural environments, it is important to consider how both individuals and societies perceive the natural environment. Human actions are driven by perceptions regardless of the reality of our evolutionary, biological, and psychological connections with nature. Perceptions of nature are driven by WorldViews, which are impacted by culture (social interactions) and our interaction with the environment at large. These perceptions ultimately account for the ways that humans interact with, value, protect, benefit from, and use the natural environment.
The overarching goal of this chapter is for people to learn that the natural environment is personally significant to all of us. We first make a case that humans are innately connected with nature evolutionarily, biologically, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. This connection is reciprocal; we are influenced by nature and we influence nature. Next we address the evolution of WorldViews and human perceptions of nature leading to the modern, predominantly Western tendency to place humans outside ecosystems; and the subsequent sense of and reality of disconnection from nature. Finally, we examine potential concerns rising from estrangement from nature and the ramifications of such separation, concluding that a WorldView that includes a positive affiliation with nature will lead to increased health and well-being for humans.
What does Connected Mean? Are We Connected to Nature?
Connected means that we are attached or united, we are joined; we are related as in family ties. In a state of connection there is a link or a bond; there is cause and effect. We are connected to nature; meaning that we are in relationship with other living beings and these relationships impact our social, psychological, spiritual, and biological selves, which in turn impact our health and well-being. Early humans were well-connected and interwoven with nature, co-evolving for millennia.
Our social and physical environments influence our perceptions. Therefore, daily interactions and close dependence on nature influenced perceptions of early humans as they lived lives intertwined with natural patterns such as solar and lunar cycles, salmon spawning cycles, whale and bird migrations, insect activity, and berry ripening. Most likely this reliance and close relationship offered many positive health and developmental benefits while also presenting hardship and challenge. Evidence of this relationship is depicted in 40,000-year-old cave paintings in areas such as Chauvet in southern France and Ulm, Germany, where horses are drawn with great perspective and accuracy. Archeologists interpret the drawings to represent a close connection to these animals in spiritual and physical ways. Prior to discovery of the cave paintings this sort of relationship with animals was believed to have developed much later in human evolution. Some societies continue to live in close contact with nature, even to the extent that they mimic the behavior of animals and plants—a practice that science now knows as biomimicry. McGregor (2010) talks about the Evenk or Reindeer people from the Siberian taiga in northern Russia who mirror reindeer behavior, historically following the migrations and relying on them for most of their needs including their shamanic spiritual and healing tradition. They believe that their soul connection to the reindeer allows them to ‘see the future, understand the unknowable, heal individuals, and advise the entire community’ (p. 13). They think of this as Bayanay or an all-knowing, all-feeling spirit, or a shared consciousness (Vitebsky, 2005; Klokov, 2007) that gives them a sense of belonging to a world larger than themselves. Originally coastal dwellers, the Evenk combine pastoralism (reindeer and horses) with fishing, hunting, and gathering; they were able to migrate into the more mountainous taiga region only because of their mutualistic relationship with the reindeer as pack animals. Today the destruction of the pasture land severely limits the reindeer herding, though local officials and Evenk are trying to revitalize their pastoral lifestyle. This disruption in connection to their natural environment has negative physical, mental, and spiritual health consequences for the Evenk people.
Human behaviors influence nature, further demonstrating our connection. A mutualistic relationship between the Evenk people and reindeer is evidenced in the behavior of herds used by the people for milk and packing burdens (though not for meat). These herds now naturally stay close by due to protection people offer from predators and by smudging biting insects.
Of course, not all human influence on animal behavior is positive or mutualistic. In the past century as human technology developed and wildlife habitat decreased, hunting pressure increased, resulting in changed animal behavior. Bears under hunting pressure now avoid hunters by shifting activity from day to night (Miller, 2012). This behavior change lessens an individual bear’s chance of being killed; however, the bear population as a whole is more vulnerable to starvation. Hunting season begins in late August and ends in late October, coinciding with the bears’ need to eat copious amount of berries and accumulate fat storage for winter. Daytime eating is more efficient for bears and the cost of not having enough fat stored for hibernation is low birth rates and death (Ordiz et al., 2012). Hunters’ use of deer feeding stations has also shifted deer activity from day to night to avoid hunting pressure.
Hunting is a connection with nature that humans have had since ancestral times. Many cultures exhibit emotional and spiritual ties with the animals they hunt. The Zunis people do not destroy the bones of animals they kill as an act of honoring the animal (Earhart, 2001). Swan (1992) asserts that hunting is a close relationship with the hunted animal. He cites examples of American Indian, Inuit, and West African conceptions of the willingness of animals to be killed and the misconception that hunting exhibits dominance over animals. In this systems way of thinking, an animal consents to be taken and a power greater than both animals and humans allows each to survive.
The previous examples illustrate evolutionary and social connections with the natural world; these interwoven relationships can be explained by systems theory, defined in Chapter 1. The following sections offer additional examples that demonstrate specific areas of connection.
Evolutionary connections
The evolution of the human species was made possible by the evolution of plants, especially trees, which process sunlight into energy through photosynthesis and release oxygen. Before the abundance of oxygen released by photosynthetic plants the Earth’s atmosphere was anaerobic and humans would not have evolved in the anaerobic environment. The oxygen-rich atmosphere formed the ozone layer, thus blocking ultraviolet solar radiation, and enabling more complex, oxygen-dependent forms of life, including humans, to evolve. The effect of this co-evolution, an absolute necessity for survival, continues today in terms of humans needing to breathe oxygen that plants make.
The results of co-evolution can be seen in many relationships in nature and this connection ties human health to the health of the natural environment. Humans eat plants which convert inorganic compounds to organic compounds (Pollan, 2002). Plants provide people with essential nutrients and human activity disperses plant seeds. Human guts also host intestinal microbes. For the past 5 years the National Institutes of Healthsponsored Microbiome Project has studied the bacteria, fungi, one-celled archaea, and viruses that live within the human digestive system. The conclusions were that humans can be considered a superorganism because of the
