How are you reconciling your personal relationship with the land?
Something that has been evident throughout this course for me is that the future of rural spaces is largely unknown. Population growth, urbanization, decline in the agricultural sector, out migration…. there are several contributing factors to this unknown future. This being said, the future of rural spaces needs to be certain and these spaces need to be preserved. I fear what our collective future will look like without these places that sustain life.
Land preservation is something that is so critical right now in society. Land sustains us and without it, I fear for our very survival as a race. Food provision, technology provision, air and water regulation… all of this is made possible because of natural entities and spaces. I am reminded of the Biosphere 2 project of the 1990s where 8 people tried living in an artificial environment for two years. Despite mimicking environmental processes this project largely failed… species relied on for food died, pollinators died, CO2 levels became a worry and so forth. The takeaway here is perhaps that we are extremely vulnerable without natural capital and we cannot manufacture substitutes. Watch more about the interesting project here… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUJGR6qNVzA
So what can we do? How can we get people to care about promoting these literally life sustaining landscapes. A flightpath to this that I see is a resurgence in connecting with nature. A focus and shift on building relationships based on deep reciprocity and responsibility. Relationships with ourselves, with others, with our environments and everything within them, biotic and abiotic. This can have profound impact on the way we interact, care for and therefore manage nature.
The way we interact with nature is not static. In fact, over the past few centuries it has been continually shifting and evolving. This can be seen in transitions that have shifted from fearing nature and therefore seeking to control it, to celebrating it leading to fortress conservation, to again utilizing it to sustain human life. At the same time, we have seen human lifestyle change dramatically alongside and influencing the way we view and interact with nature. The way we interact with nature is directly tied to history and lifestyle. This has led us down a path that currently seeks to separate humans from nature in order to command and control environmental resources. We do this by simplifying nature and its components in order to utilize and control them. I would argue we need to be seeking lifestyles and thought changes that situate ourselves within and as a part of nature. Our historical resource use has largely deteriorated our relationship with nature, however, this does not have to be our future. Alternate futurities exist.
The top layer of muskeg and earth (right), and the underlying tar sands (left) after the removal of the muskeg, at the Syncrude tar sands operations near Fort McMurray, Alberta, on September 17, 2014. Photo: Todd Korol.
And yes, generalization alert flashing in red… Of course there are many wonderful communities and individuals who work to dismantle this destructive system. I am not dismissing them, in fact I am proposing we witness and therefore learn and (un)learn from them.
For example, baring witness to Indigenous people and the ways that they interact with the environment. Indigenous worldviews tend to be intrinsically tied to nature and can therefore teach us so much about environmental stewardship. As Tully (2018) states, “The unsustainable and crisis-ridden relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people that we are trying to reconcile has its deepest roots in the unsustainable and crisis-ridden relationship between human beings and the living earth” (Asch, Borrows & Tully 2018, p. 266). Reconciling the land is a crucial component to reconciling with each other and simultaneously learning about being stewards to the environment. Something like 80% of the planets biodiversity is found within the customary lands of Indigenous peoples which has been managed and maintained by these people for time immemorial. Upholding these practices offers hope for the future.
Additionally, I feel that for the past few years as Spring is sprung and all beings (including myself) are reawakening, I revisit Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic. I hadn’t yet, until mulling over this prompt where I realized that this ethic over half a century later continues to reign true. Based on extending moral value to all natural beings and ecosystems as a whole, I feel it aligns with what I am trying to advocate for in creating deep reciprocal relations. It does not separate humans from nature as it is important to think of how we therefore shape these ecosystems we find ourselves situated in. How do we live, breath and exist while maintaining ecological integrity… Is this possible?
Leopold (1949) states, “It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value” (Leopold 1949, p. 223). As our society has largely headed in the opposite direction, engaging in command and control management styles, I think it is time to revisit this ethic towards intense consciousness and responsibility to the land. If we are all equal then we must all be protected.
From a day spent on hands & knees, picking chanterelle’s on Haida Gwaii.
I see this deep connectivity as a path for all on this planet. We can learn so much from our non-human and human kin and I think that is such an important part in ensuring the wellbeing of all beings both biotic and abiotic to exist and thrive in this world. I think it is one of the biggest questions we are facing and I see reconciling our personal relationships with nature as a way to find these answers.
Further, it is a way to preserve our spaces and places by breathing life into them. People protect what they hold dear to their hearts. Reconnecting with nature and rural spaces will promote preservation of them. I truly hope that is the future of rural Ontario. I hope we see this resurgence of land based practices and land based love and therefore land preservation. The introduction of more Greenbelt-esque preservation plans that work to both protect and filter growth to very specific already built up areas. This therefore influences building up instead of out. We are seeing this in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area, and I only hope to see more rigid introduction and implementation of initiatives like this in the future.
Our history has shaped the way we interact with the land around us ~ let’s put in the work and energy then to shape our future that is built on connection and stewardship. We are all caretakers to this land, it is time to start embodying and acting on that. My questions for this week are surrounding how you work to foster relations with non-human kin? What drives and inspires you in this realm and do you see these as a flightpath to land preservation?
A beautiful Okanagan sunset as well as the backdrop for my blog!
Warm regards & happy Spring,
Maddy
Happy spring to you too Maddy!
Reading your post, I too started to envision Canada without rural spaces. What a scary thought. Sometimes I wonder why our governments aren’t working in a state of crises in saving our natural resources. Preserving rural means everything. It means saving our natural lands and waters, and in return sustaining both our urbanized centers as well. Unfortunately, a lot of Canadians still live with this disconnection, which is why I think it is so important that you brought up the need to rebuild relationships based on reciprocity and responsibility among nature. I enjoyed how you used the example of Biosphere 2 because it serves as a real-life scientific experiment that had proved we cannot simulate a natural environment. No matter how close to the ‘real thing’, an alternative environment will never function the same way.
To answer your question, I think that one of the most influential, and small acts that we can do daily is lead by example. Be an example for your friends, family, co-workers, etc. Be passionate about rural space and install the notion that it’s cool to care about protecting the environment and being a conscious being. For myself, I try and do this with my 7-year-old brother. I take him for walks, I encourage him to talk to people in our community, we water our vegetable garden together that we made for our dad, I bring him to summer markets, tell him to pick up his trash, I show him to be kind to our dog, Ginger, and cat, Rascal. I am proud of these small activities that I can experience with him, and show a connection with our small town and the environment. Educating our youth is what I see to be an important path for land preservation. Perhaps I should convince my dad to send him out to Haida Gwaii and pick chanterelles with you. He would definitely feel that earthly connection!
Also, thank you for sharing that beautiful Okanagan sunset. If the picture was good, the real thing must have been x10! Good luck with finals.
-Taylor
Some personal photos of me and my brother at a farmers market, and him showing some fur compassion! (mostly sharing because I miss him haha)
