There’s something to be learned from growing your own food and eating it versus going to a fast food place.‘Daring The Sea: Exploring Aesthetic Experiences in Prolonged, Extreme Natural Environments which Reconnect Individuals to the Ecosystem,’ pg. 86

Five Key Takeaways

One

Biophilia - As defined by E.O. Wilson, it is the innate affinity of life or living systems in each of us. Essentially, our innate love of nature.

Two

Biophobia - The opposite of biophilia, the innate fear of nature. Think spiders, snakes and Big Foot.

Three

Ecoconsciousness - The extent to which we understand and think about the interconnectedness of nature with ourselves.

Four

Bio-Cultural Evolution - Essentially, it defines how we impact social and cultural norms relative to our own ecoconsciousness. It is possible that you can pass your biophilia on to future generations through your genes, and thusly, change the world.

Five

Prolonged and consistent contact with nature is necessary to build a relationship with nature, and thus, to build a sense of biophilia and ecoconsciousness. Similarly, one’s biophilia can be strengthened by biophobic experiences in nature as well, as we build a deeper understanding of the power and vastness both of the size and depth of our physical realm as well as the diversity of flora and fauna.

One way in which nature impacted my biophilia through a positive aesthetic experience was through multiple random encounters with my spirit animal - a Northern Harrier Falcon - while out hunting.

We have no hope of preserving and protecting a thing in which we have no intimate knowledge of, and this is why we all must strive to develop a closer relationship with nature. Close the laptop. Take a hike. Go for a paddle. Row an ocean. Bike a trail. Walk the Appalachian or the Camino de Santiago. Plant a garden. Sit in a hunting blind.

That’s not just some hippie liberal sentiment, but a human imperative to be embraced for the success of the tribe in future generations.

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Links

• Daring the Sea: Exploring Aesthetic Experiences in Prolonged, Extreme Natural Environments which Reconnect Individuals to the Ecosystem
• Biophilia
• Being Eco-Conscious
• ‘Daring the Sea’, by David W. Shaw
• Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo
• Rowing the Potomac River
• Northern Harrier Hawk
• Spirit Animals in Native American Culture
• Camino de Santiago
• Gymnosperm
• Angiosperms