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Humanity is facing a very challenging time in which we are confronted by the results of our actions: ecosystems are crumbling, forests are being destroyed, many animal species are becoming extinct and tortured, the water in the planet is being polluted, the air is becoming poisonous, human waste has become mountains, climate is drastically changing, suffering, violence, depression and unhappiness are increasing. Is it possible that our disconnection to nature is a consequence to all this destruction?

Being disconnected from nature has many personal, environmental, and ultimately social consequences. Since an early age people are taught to live disconnected from the natural world by the modern way of life. While there are many solutions, there is a great need for humanity to realize it is time to change our ways for our future generations.

As industrialization becomes a bigger part of many societies, people have increasingly become disconnected from nature. According to Michael J. Cohen, a leading psychologist who has done extensive research on the effects of nature in people, with a Ph.D. in applied ecopsychology, natural attraction ecology, and environmental psychology, as well as a Ed. D. in environmental psychology, and with over 70 publications, writes about his belief that “the disturbed state of the earth and its people suggests that our thinking suffers from a deficiency. From early life we learn the habit of paying attention to things industrial society considers important” (29). Because the modern way of life is centered on consuming, nature is forgotten and put in the background, our natural origins are erased, and our organizing systems become slaves to a destructive pattern of our planet. Ralph Metzner, a teacher at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and founder of Green Earth Foundation, describes our impotence to act:

We have the knowledge of our impact on the environment, we can perceive the pollution and degradation of the land, the waters, the air – but we do not attend to it, we do not connect that knowledge with other aspects of our total experience. Perhaps it would be more accurate, and fair, to say that individuals feel unable to respond to the natural world appropriately, because the political, economic, and educational institutions in which we are involved all have this dissociation built into them. (Roszak 64)

Part of being human is the basic need to connect to something we value, but what does it mean to be connected to nature?
First, it is important to define what nature means and what it represents. Nature, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is: “The phenomena of the physical world collectively; esp. plants, animals, and other features and products of the earth itself, as opposed to humans and human creations”. While this definition represents the physical meaning of the word nature, it also represents the deep links that exist between life forms.

Being connected to nature is to deeply respect all life, where one life form is not more important than the other. This connection is a basic understanding of the balance in nature and humanity’s role in it. Michael Cohen explains how the process of connecting is part of the earth, “Normally, the fulfillment of natural attraction sensitivities, organism to organism, builds and interconnects the natural world as a community. This is the loving wisdom of the Earth connecting and communicating (communing)” (43). But many people, through our modern lifestyle, are taught to ignore this important part of life. How did this nature-disconnection happen in so many individuals and societies?
Michael Cohen explains some important aspects of how the disconnection began:

At birth, every human being is born as part of nature itself. Like nature itself, an infant is born out of love, not fear. Fear of people and nature is absent in the newborn. In addition, nature does not teach an infant to destroy natural areas or to create garbage, war, or insanity. These learnings are not originally part of the human soul. Our civilization, our process of becoming civilized, teaches these things to us. (67)

The process of learning to disconnect from nature begins from the moment we are born, we learn and develop through our parent’s example of what is valuable and worth connecting to. Peter H. Khan, a professor in Washington University, with a Ph.D. in Psychology, and a leading researcher in the development of cultures and nature, funded by the National Science Foundation, points out: “children’s moral relationship with other humans help establish their moral relationship with nature” (212). It can be said that for most people our parents’ disconnection to nature teaches us to break our relationship with the natural world. This, however, can be reversed, as we have the ability to adapt, and create new connections to nature constantly.
To continue the process of disconnecting from nature, media is bombarding our minds with fear of going outside of our safe home and work environments. Every day there are reports of crime, violence, natural disasters, and a strong portrayal of how unsafe it is to be outdoors. Richard Louv, the Audubon Medal recipient, which is given in recognition for outstanding achievement in the conservation and protection of the environment, journalist and author of seven books about the connections between family, nature and community, explains how this fear affects a child’s exposure to the outdoors: “Fear is the most potent force that prevents parents from allowing their children the freedom they themselves enjoyed when they were young. Fear is the emotion that separates a developing child from the full, essential benefits of nature. Fear of traffic, of crime, of stranger-danger – and of nature itself” (123). Not allowing kids to experience the outdoors, in turn, causes them to fear nature. As Richard Louv describes, “Lacking direct experience with nature, children begin to associate it with fear and apocalypse, not joy or wonder.” (133). Through children not having a full natural experience nature becomes an unknown and unfamiliar place, which they learn to fear and avoid. While fear is important for survival, living in fear will not allow us to experience nature’s full beauty and magnificence and our part in it.

According to a study by The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), children in the United States between the ages of six and eleven spend around thirty hours per week watching television or a computer monitor (Louv 47). A great majority of people in western civilization are too busy working to earn money for a living, and the little free time they have is used on indoor entertainment like watching TV, spending time on the computer, or playing outdoor simulated games. Many of the children of these people are also spending most of their time indoors, which in turn teaches future generations to be disconnected from nature, “You want to connect to nature only the real thing can do it, there is no substitute” (Naturally Attracted min. 30:30). There are many unique environments in our planet, and each brings a different type of connection to our lives. Nature is one of these environments. We can only connect to that which we have a personal and direct experience to, so to connect with nature, we need to be in it.

If most people spend a great part of their lives on technology and man-made things instead of nature, then that is what they will connect with. It is then that our societies forget our natural origins, or as Ralph Metzner calls our neglect, collective amnesia: “We have forgotten something our ancestors once knew and practiced – certain attitudes and kinds of perception, and ability to empathize and identify with nonhuman life, respect for the mysterious, and humility in relationship to the infinite complexities of the natural world” (Roszak 61). While we grow up, our family is a great influence on how we learn to perceive the world and nature, but another important factor is outside our homes. The educational system is rapidly changing to focus on the demands of survival based on an industrial perspective. This creates a limited learning experience that Michael Cohen emphasizes:

Our indoor learning is not balanced with multisensory outdoor education. Unlike more balanced societies, we learn to disown nature early in life. We find it rude and uncivilized. We seldom seek, enjoy, appreciate, validate or trust our nature or our natural feelings like we do our money. (Cohen 117)

There are many religions around the world that tend to separate humans from nature, and create a division of superiority where mankind is beyond the natural world. Without understanding our natural origins and that all beings share a common space that must be respected and cared for, how can man do good to other living beings? Ralph Metzner explains how this ideal of separation from nature through beliefs is embedded into many peoples’ selves: “For most people in the West, their highest values, their noblest ideals, their image of themselves as spiritual beings striving to be good and come closer to God, have been deeply associated with a sense of having to overcome and separate from nature” (Roszak 66). Thinking that we are separate from nature, and that we can dominate it, is one of the main reasons that could ultimately destroy us.

We live in a planet with limited resources in a system that appears to be consuming until there is nothing left, and where destruction is the only path to satisfaction. Many people value more material possessions than living in balance with the nature. Alan Thein Durning, former senior researcher studying the relationships between social and environmental issues, and founder of Sightline Institute, notes “High rates of economic growth are regarded as signs of economic success, but overconsumption is depleting the planet’s resources, creating massive waste, and often making people miserable” (Roszak 68). As we detach ourselves from what damage we are doing to the natural world, through not being conscious of what we consume, we are directly creating many of the environmental problems we face today. Being disconnected from nature allows us to continue in such a destructive pattern. Alan Thein Durning points out, “The consumers of the world are responsible for a disproportionate share of all the global environmental challenges facing humanity” (Roszak 69).

Through understanding the process of our disconnection to nature many personal and health issues arise. On average, 95% of Americans have lived inside for 95% of the time (Naturally Attracted min. 30:30). By spending a great deal of time indoors, adults and kids can develop depression, stress, a sense of unhappiness and meaninglessness in life, obesity, different types of disorders such as natural deficit disorder, and many more problems. Michael Cohen observes, “Over 75% of our population express that they are dissatisfied with their lives right now. Many are in stress and despair” (59).
There is no doubt that we are part of nature even when most people do not want to admit it. As part of nature, if we destroy that which we belong to, it could be considered as killing ourselves. We cannot survive without nature, as we ourselves are nature. Theodore Roszak, professor of history and director of the Ecopsychology Institute at California State University, gives the conclusion of a conference held in 1990 in Harvard by ecopsychologists: “if the self is expanded to include the natural world, behavior leading to destruction of this world will be experienced as self-destruction” (Roszak 12).

The solution to our problem is very simple: connect with nature. In order to connect with nature it is very important to have a real sensory experience in the outdoors. As much as technology tries to simulate nature with its plasma TVs, artificial lighting, robotic pets, etc., it does not give us that sensory experience which bonds us with the Earth. Although to some extent it does help as a first step to create an initial link, Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Rachel L. Severson, and Jolina H. Ruckert raise the following “The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing” (37).

Michael Cohen offers a deep insight on how through nature we can find a balanced life were the solution comes from our mother earth instead of our separated selves:

Our excessive separation from nature holds each of us hostage. We neither see nor validate nature’s magnificent process of peaceful, natural change. That process offers a revolutionary but peaceful solution. It is the process by which nature sustains an optimum of life, diversity and beauty without producing our runaway pollution, war, or violence. (69)

There are many ways we can have the very needed contact with nature that will, little by little, reestablish our lost link to our planet. Any activity that allows you to have full-unobstructed contact with nature, will ultimately achieve healing our reconnection to nature. The longer the time you spend there, the better.

The importance of including a rich sensory natural learning experience in our current educational system is essential to changing how future generations will perceive nature. This will teach them to respect life, and be more aware of what unbalance their actions might cause. This is a vital part in the development of any person. Peter H. Khan exemplifies this learning process as follows: “Similarly, through environmental education must do much else as well, it must invite students to look and to see, not so as to acquire another “fact” about nature but rather to value it, through experiences lived and intimacy felt” (222).

We must only take what we need, and no more. As nature has its natural rules, we must abide by them. We are part of it, not separate. As Alan Thein Durning illustrates, “The basic value of a sustainable society, the ecological equivalent of the Golden Rule, is simple: each generation should meet its needs without jeopardizing the prospects for future generations to meet their own needs” (Roszak 74). Through understanding nature in a deep emotional level, where we are a part of it and not separated from it, humanity can begin the healing process of our planet and our disconnection to nature. We must change this sickness of destruction we have created. It is absolutely necessary to adjust our lifestyles before it becomes irreversible, and we leave nothing for our future generations. It is not a question of if we want to, but that we must.

Works Cited

Cohen, Michael J. Reconnecting with Nature : Finding Wellness through Restoring Your Bond with the Earth. Corvallis, Or. : Ecopress, 1997. Print.

Kahn, Peter H. The Human Relationship with Nature : Development and Culture. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1999. Print.

Kahn, Peter H., Rachel L. Severson, and Jolina H. Ruckert. “The Human Relation with Nature and Technological Nature.” Current Directions in Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell) 18.1 (2009): 37-42. Web.

Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods : Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. 1st pbk. ed. ed. Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006. Print.

Naturally Attracted: Connecting with Michael J. Cohen. Dir. Scull, Charley. Prod. Scull Charley. Contains Live Culture Productions, 2007.

“Nature.” Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.

Roszak ,Theodore, ed., Mary E. Gomes, ed., and Allen D. Kanner, ed. Ecopsychology : Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, 1995. Print.