A legacy of Enlightenment thinkers and of modern philosophy is the separation of man from nature, establishing man as the master of nature. This separation, key to our thinking today encourages an abusive relationship towards nature. Trained to see nature as an unlimited natural resource, and something which is ours to dominate and in which we have no relation to. We can see this in the separation of green spaces from cities, in relegating the preservation of nature to state-protected parks and in our disregard for the sanctity of nature. This othering of nature is key for permitting the one-sided abuse to go on. By placing nature on the level of other, outside of our communities of care, we sanction the harm caused on an ideological level, as has been occurring for centuries.
Necessary for a non-reciprocal use and abuse of nature is an understanding of us as part of nature, and nature as our community. In other words, starting from a standpoint of reciprocity, we should treat nature with an ethic of love as we would our community. What would it look like if we treated nature as something which was also deserving of healing? How could we rethink our domination of nature to understand the harm this ideal has caused, and move to restore our relationship with our valued community member? How can we listen to nature and start to heal from the harm we have caused our trees, plants, rivers and mountains? How can we heal those who have been harmed by the abuse of nature, looking to those who are most affected by global warming, and, for example, pollution in low income neighborhoods?
Solving this requires a reframing, on an individual and communal level, of the dominant ideology which assigns nature as other to man, by undoing this we can start to path to material change and undoing environmental harm. This shift would require a massive transformation of our economy towards a restorative path that centers a commitment to community, to land-back projects and indigenous sovereignty, to unlearning individualism, and to healing our long history of environmental harm with a focus on reciprocity. Looking first to the harm caused and how we can heal this harm, by undoing our one-sided relationships with nature.