Mother Earth Day
The world is undergoing severe changes. Global temperatures are rising, oceans¹ and air² are suffering from pollution, and nearly a third of the world’s ecosystems are losing their resilience.³ Unsurprisingly, these changes are man-made and they are partly caused by humans’ unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Although seemingly innocent, these practices steadily result in ever higher emissions of greenhouse gases and transformations to natural landscapes.⁴⁵ Our current relationship with nature is in other words threatening its being.
To call for a new way of living with nature, the UN declared, in 2009, the 22nd of April as International Mother Earth Day. The aim was, and still is, to remind people of the beauty and importance of the earth, as well as to protect it from harmful activities. This is a day devoted to acknowledge our dependence on earth for well-being and survival, to encourage human connection with nature, and to restore our ecosystems. As part of this, the UN indicates that we need to develop a new human relationship to earth, one that is built on the belief that nature has an intrinsic value irrespective of how well it serves our human needs. We need to live in harmony with nature; we need to adopt this healthy relationship to protect nature for nature's sake, but we also need it to protect us from ourselves as the loss of nature inevitably will mean the loss of human lives. But, in order to live in harmony with nature, we need to connect with it.
Why is our connection with nature important for changing the environmental status quo? Well, the quality of human-nature relations has proven to impact the way we treat earth and ourselves. For example, the Mental Health Foundation argues that a better relationship with nature can cultivate pro-environmental beliefs that are crucial for creating positive and transformative change. Establishing this human-nature bond is more important than ever as several recent studies have shown that there’s a trend of decline in human connection to nature⁷⁸.
Inevitably, the next question is therefore: how can we even go about connecting with nature? Helping us to concretize this somewhat intangible task, the Mental Health Foundation has created a chart of five different types of activities that can enhance our relationship with nature. These are:
Source: Mental Health Foundation (2021).
The chart tells us that we don’t necessarily need to be in nature in order to create a good connection with it. We can bring nature to us through art, music, literature and film. This is however not to ignore the importance of having access to green areas for establishing a sense of harmony with nature. So, let’s appreciate the parks we have here in Amsterdam. Why not celebrate this day by taking a stroll in Vondelpark, Beatrixpark or Rembrandtpark? Let’s pay extra attention to birdsong and the flowers in bloom today. Together, let’s devote this day to cherishing nature and all it does for us, whether we do that through sitting in a park or watching a nature documentary.
Written by volunteer Elvira Granath
