Conversations on The Lost Connection with Nature

What is causing the disconnection from Nature? The disconnection from Nature started a long time ago and it has been a gradual process. As you can read in Dr Jenny Goodman’s story in Part Three, modern society started losing its connection with Nature about 200 or 300 years ago, with the industrial revolution. But you could also say that process has been going on for the last 10,000 years. Because until 10,000 years ago, which is incredibly recent in terms of our biological evolution, we were hunter gatherers and lived in the forest. Then, for reasons we still do not fully understand, some hunter gatherers stopped hunting and gathering, and began domesticating plants and animals. They started settling down to become agriculturalists or pastoralists, rather than catching wild animals and picking wild plants. Fast-forward to today and other drivers of disconnection have become clear. Urbanisation Over 50% of people on this planet live in urban areas with limited access to Nature and this number is still increasing, with more and more people worldwide moving from rural areas to cities. In 2022 Tokyo had 37,274,000 residents, which is 1,000,000 more than the entire population of Saudi Arabia! Our modern lifestyle Nowadays many people live a very sedentary lifestyle, spending a lot of time indoors. From an evolutionary point of view, we are neglecting our needs of being outdoors and being physical. Our ancestors were continuously on the go, hunting, foraging, finding shelter or fending off threats. But many people are more interested in their smart phones and fast food, a life based on convenience, and we have too many distractions. Economic forces are at play in all this too (progress, money etc.). Many people are just too busy to spend time in Nature. Destruction of Nature Air and water pollution, deforestation, raiding natural resources, just to name a few, can destroy part of or a whole ecosystem, wiping out the plants and animals that live in those natural habitats. What connection is possible if there is not much left? Eco-anxiety The charity Friends of the Earth describes eco-anxiety as the negative feelings – including stress, fear, anger, and grief – many of us have about climate breakdown, Nature loss and the future of our planet. It is a fast-growing phenomenon that affects many people, in particular youngsters. According to Save the Children, in 2022, 70% of British children were worried about the world they will inherit. They feel powerless. Last year the University of East Anglia teamed up with a mental health charity to create a course of six weekly two-hour sessions for students who are suffering from eco-anxiety. Technology Our modern society is a technology-intense environment with many forms of indoor and virtual distraction. In 2022, the average daily media use among internet users in the UK was 5 hours and 47 minutes, using the internet via any device. About 2 hours was spent on social media, 1 hour was spent gaming and on average 2 hours and 24 minutes was spent watching live TV. We all know the impact of the mobile phone. How often do you see people walking outdoors, looking at their phones (and risking walking into a lamp post?) I wasn’t joking about the lamp post by the way, as apparently 17% of all adults in the US have reported bumping into something while texting and walking. Enough said. As we know, these tech devices often expose us to more sensory information than our brain can process. Wouldn’t you prefer to see greenery and listen to the sounds of Nature such as wind, water, or birds? And then there is the light exposure in the evening. The blue light that is emitted from your computer screen and other devices is disturbing our natural, circadian rhythm by telling our body it is day because of the light exposure and we are disturbing the natural wave of melatonin, that should be increasing at this time of the day and making us feel sleepy. Technology can’t fully replace Nature. In 2008 Peter Kahn Jr., Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Lab and his colleagues researched technological Nature versus real Nature. They installed a camera on top of a building and then showed the actual view of Nature on digital screen “windows”. They looked at physical and psychological responses of people looking at the technological Nature window versus looking at Nature through a normal glass window, or no window at all. What they found was that looking at the technological Nature window was less revitalising than looking out of a normal glass window. Although there was no difference between the technological window and no window, other research showed that installing the technological windows in a windowless office had beneficial effects on mental well-being, cognitive function, and the feeling of being connected to Nature. In 2017 some very interesting research was done on our growing disconnection from Nature by Selin Kesebir PhD, assistant professor of organisational behaviour at London Business School, and Pelin Kesebir PhD, assistant scientist at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin. They studied works of popular culture in English (books, songs, and movies) from the 20th century and later, and what they found was that from the 1950s onwards Nature featured less and less in popular culture. The way they researched this is remarkable. They made a list with 186 Nature-related words: general words like cloud, spring etc., names of flowers, trees, and birds, and checked how often these words would appear in books, songs, and movies. The result was that Nature featured a lot less today than before the 1950s. Authors, songwriters, and filmmakers seem to have less connection with Nature nowadays. Is it a coincidence that in the 1950s people first started to watch TV? I don’t think so. Why is the disconnection from Nature so worrying? As described in Part One Nature & Health, being disconnected from Nature is detrimental for our physical and mental health and well-being. Being disconnected from Nature also means missing out on beauty, happiness, and the feeling of awe, which would increase our sense of connectedness with Nature. Connectedness to Nature positively affects pro-environmental and responsible behaviour. If we can’t see what we have been doing to our planet and are disconnected from Nature, there is little hope. What damage has been done? What consequences did this have for our planet? And what dangers are we facing? There is need for greater awareness and luckily it is slowly growing. As Zylstra et al (2014) say “CWN [connectedness with Nature] is more than the simple contact or superficial enjoyment of Nature: it is an enduring appreciation, empathy, and mindfulness of the intrinsic value and shared essence of all life…”.