For as long as we can remember, value has been placed on the natural world.
I walk around every day of my life looking at the bark on trees, feeling how the wind blows between my fingers, closing my eyes under the sun, sticking my fingers in soil to ground my nervous system. I have placed inherent value on natural elements because I personally have a strong (active) relationship to them. Without these intentional interactions, I feel myself slipping further from the source and the truth that is our natural world.
However, outside of my personal (and your personal) relationship to the ecosystem, there is a long history of placing value on nature, which is equated with power, money, and hierarchy. This is no shocking news, I know. There have been big corporations, technology companies, and private “regenerative” projects extracting from lands and water for centuries now. I am not just putting those dots together. Instead, I am fascinated by the concept of value and how we prescribe it to things in our lives (specifically in this case, the natural world). My brain finds it helpful to ask questions, look at history, and find examples to help me make sense of this.
I recently was listening to a great conversation with Austin Wade Smith and Matthew Monahan, called The Legibility of our World. In this conversation, Smith talks about how the natural world has every right to exist. Just as we have the right to walk down the sidewalk, swim in a lake, or pick an apple from a tree — the river has every right to flow, the trees every right to shed their leaves in autumn, and rain to form puddles in the street. And after he explained the idea of a natural element having a “right” to do what it was created to do, it was clear to me that few people actually view it this way. Even if you aren’t a greedy, capitalistic, power-hungry CEO looking to build the next hotel or invent the next regenerative technology, you, too, may be able to tweak the way in which you view your relationship with the natural world. Are you observing the elements? Are you coexisting with them? Do you think these elements were created for you? ( I, personally, think not. More on that in a second.)
As far back as we can look, humans have found value in the land we believe to be ours. Big emphasis on “believe.” As cavepeople, we discovered places in the wild that would provide us shelter, most likely next to a clean water source, and with plenty of animals to hunt and vegetation to gather for food, tools, and other resources that were needed. Some migrated during the seasons because if you were not in tune with the changes in your landscape, you were at risk for literal death. The stakes were high, and we were in flow with the world around us. Since then, we have continued to place value on all of these elements, but in new and different ways. For example, many people in the West value owning a home — it is one of the most gratifying moments of their lives. For some people, having a fancy water filter (or living in a city with clean tap water) is a must. And for others, being close to a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s is a non-negotiable. For some regions of the world, these are just seen as automatic. Some don’t think twice about the ways in which nature has to work overtime to help us exist with this amount of ease.
In the same vein, there has been an extreme amount of destruction in aims of “moving technology, society, and innovation forward.” I won’t waste time going through the countless examples we can see far and wide across the globe. But rather, again, think about this concept of value. Why do we not place value in protecting the very thing that makes our lives rich? For example, the higher-class individuals who love their water being used in an ice-cold plunge, or need a ripe avocado for their veggie sandwich. It’s funny that the very people leading some of these environment-altering projects are also the people who love to bask in the fruits of the natural world. Some would never call themselves environmentally conscious, though. Hell, they may even completely denounce the fact that climate change is occurring right here, right now. They don’t place their time or value on learning how to fight destructive forces, because then they wouldn’t be as comfortable. Ironically enough, without the healthy environment, their world would crash around them, too. We are interconnected; there is not one way around it.
It is the entitlement over the natural world that is at the crux of this conversation around value. It is hard to show value and respect to something that you have convinced is yours. And in my relationship with the natural world around me, I view it as something I am truly privileged to experience. It is not mine and it never has been. It is the thing that allows me to be here, and without it, I would be nothing. It gives, gives, and gives. It thrashes, pulls us out, sucks us up, fuels the shivers up our spines, and provides spaces to frolic, cry, laugh, roll, skip, and play. It is magic. It is bliss. It is true love in all the ways. It is the most important relationship I will ever have in my life. Hands down, not a single question asked.
While my conviction may be a strong one, I wonder what it takes for people to slow down a bit. Thank the clean water they are privileged as hell to consume. Thank the wind when it hits you on your afternoon walk. Believe scientists when they provide their research about the ways in which we are consuming too much, too fast. Learn about whose land you are on and how you got there. Strip away the obsession with convenience, because it also comes at a cost. Understand the systems that are created by your government. Are they working? And if so, for whom? Creating a value system starts with learning about these subjects. To place value on something, you need to feel a reason. You need a sense of conviction and empathy.
With this brief personal reflection on value, I will leave you with a few questions to ponder (as will I):
Do you know how your clean water makes it to your faucet?
When was the last time you thanked your plate of food before you took a bite?
Have you ever looked up the origins of the land you grew up on? (Here is a good site for those in the U.S. + Canada).
Are there data AI centers near the area where you live? Have you looked into the impacts they have on the local community and environment?
When was the last time you complained about the rain? (For me, it was a few days ago)
When someone asks you what you value most in your life, what makes it onto that list?
Cheers Xx