HUMAN+NATURE is the counternarrative to all that we learned which is not in alignment with a regenerative Earth and equitable humanity. We hold space for an inclusive community who values meaningful dialogue in the continuous pursuit of becoming whole.
What you need to know before being featured as a writer:
- Read HUMAN+NATURE: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Discourse to see if this publication is a good fit for your writing.
- This publication takes an academic approach while still being written for a general audience across Medium. This means that writers must thoroughly research all statements made and diligently link the sources of any outside information (either through direct links or a list of sources at the bottom of the essay). …
The oppression of women gives insights to environmental degradation
There is a need to incorporate womxn’s empowerment into the pursuit of sustainability and mainstream environmentalism. This requires understanding the shift from an organic worldview to a mechanistic worldview and acknowledging the role that ecofeminism (with emphasis on indigenous feminism) plays in the environmental movement today.
Looking at different ways of ecological thinking outside of the androcentric and anthropocentric narrative will challenge the dominant paradigm because it allows for the integration of transformative value systems.
Those who are the most impacted by environmental issues are the same people that are most commonly left out of the conversations. …
A Counter Narrative of Climate Resilience in an Eco-Apocalyptic Era
When I met William Thomas a few years back and visited his home for the first time, he started the tour by showing me the trailer he bought that afternoon on Craigslist. It quite apparently needed some renovation and he knew it would be an ongoing project. But his wife, Marisha, gave him the task of finding them “an escape pod” to which he responded to with urgency and thought it would be, in his words, “better than nothing.”
William and Marisha are both retired professors in Environmental Studies from the University of Virginia. Now in their 70’s, they have researched and taught about the state of the Earth for over fifty years. …
Racist theories influence science and science influences racist theories
If you have heard the term race is a social construct, then you mind know that classifying people into groups “is a subjective process, influenced by cultural ideas and political priorities.”
This does not mean the implications of race are not strikingly real or that it is okay to use race as justification to be colorblind. This is an inquiry into the ways of thinking that perpetuated racial inequality which did so under the guise of “science.”
Biological and anthropological racism was founded upon classifications that were inconsistent and arbitrary. It drew from pseudoscientific disciplines with the, “belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.” …
“What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny.”
-Lynn White, Jr.
The Impact of Religion
Religion has historically acted as the primary method of perceiving the natural environment. The landscape of the United States has undergone major transformations as a result of the dominant culture’s beliefs which forever changed the ways in which we understood and interacted with our natural world.
When comparing land-based polytheistic religions and a Westernized Judeo-Christian belief-system, we will notice different ways in which natural resources were utilized. Spiritual beliefs informed the normative cultural values of European settlers during the colonization of the United States and this had an overwhelming influence on how we perceive the environment (and indigenous people) to this day. …
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