Biophilia or Biophobia - David Orr -Colloquium Post 6

You cannot read David W. Orr’s “Love it or Lose It: The Coming Biophilia Revolution” without reflecting on your current relationship with nature.  It is sad to me to think that there are many individuals that have absolutely no interest or respect for nature.  I really do believe that we have strayed far from our roots and have become conditioned by modern society to go against our very nature.  Some would argue that we have naturally evolved and we have overcome the challenges of our environment but in reality we have destroyed our natural environment by erecting cities, clearing forests, and killing off anything we perceived as a threat.  Our world and the environment we live in are artificial and man made.   Unfortunately, nature has suffered greatly due to man’s selfishness, greed, and biophobia.  Orr sees our modern society as a kind of collective madness due to our willingness to be caged within the confines our artificial environments and our alienation of the very world that birthed humanity.  I liked the comparison that Orr used when he compared caged monkeys, who knew nothing other than captivity, to modern human society.  Our perspective is a matter of conditioning but as Orr states, it’s also a matter of conscious choice.  Orr points out the obvious; that in order to correct the state of environmental crisis we have created, we must learn to love nature and the land that we stand on.  Instead of dominating the land, humanity has to accept its place as part of nature and shed the selfishness and greed that has clouded man’s judgment for generations. One giant leap for mankind!  I guess the first step is to learn how to love ourselves first, or maybe the solution is as simple as reacquainting our children once again with nature. It may be beneficial to their future perspective of how they fit into nature.