Mankind's Coexistence with the Environment

Ever since mankind has been around, coexistence with the environment has allowed for us to develop and progress over hundreds of thousands of years, however with that in mind, detrimental effects to the earth due to human activities has had negative impacts and continues to do so. In modern societies, the concept of sustainability has grown, even being a key idea in the majority of the world’s politics and is vital to the systems that rely upon it; the environment, the economy and society. In this systemic way of thinking, sustainability is an inter-connected concept and our roles as humans influences the quality of relationships that each system shares to one another. Each system relies on another to sustain itself and this can be applied to any type of sub-system that makes up the earth. With this in mind, the connections and mindsets that we have can directly affect this web, so it is important to have a sense of awareness and to reach compromises if necessary to achieve this ideal.

When it comes to sustainability in Western terms, the ideal is to achieve a holistic approach through (mostly) the economy, society and the environment. If this were to be compared to the Nhungabarra people in south east Australia, this concept is portrayed in a different manner, relating to the actions of human nature and the impact upon the environment. Sveiby (Sveiby, 2009) proposes that although primal, the principles of the care of the environment within the Nhungabarra community are aspects that Western people should bring into perspective. Respect of the land is different in this culture; it (the land) is necessary to survive and the main purpose of human existence. Comparing this ideology to our societies today, the level of connections to the land are much shallower and can be evident in the way current environmental issues – such as tree logging, over fishing, carbon emissions etc. - continue in the sense that resources continue to be depleted without enough ‘return’ going back into the environment. However, it is interesting to note the amount of principles contained in the story of the Crow and the Crane and how similar our economies, and societies are in the story about the environment. The fact that our economy relies on intangible services and knowledge to sustain itself is similar to how knowledge of the land and its customs of the Nhungabarra people are shared between kinsmen. To maintain the balance, actions have to be monitored and any negative effects should be learnt from, which could explain why indigenous communities such as Nhungabarra have been able to maintain the Australian landscape for thousands of years. With these rational practices, it goes on to show that ethical human behaviour and awareness of actions must be sought to continue to sustain the global environment (Bender, Judith, & Beilin, 2012).

To further add onto the relationships between systems, Beder argues that the economy cannot resolve existing environmental issues, so solutions regarding environmental protection must be sought to achieve the notion of sustainability. What is brought to question is the idea of economic growth and whether specific things need developing and what would reinforce sufficient development. In this instance, the environment is placed at a secondary level in terms of today’s economies, trying to cater to human wants and needs which very much fits in with the human-centric definitions that are found throughout major world organisations; ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ – Brundtland Commission. In this sense, sustainability in regards to the environment ‘recognises the need for balance and trade-offs’ (Beder, 2002); thus the welfare of humanity is met at the costs of depleting environmental resources. From this, what can be gathered is that compromises have to be met to maintain a quality of relationship between economic and environmental systems.

Further going along with this systematical approach to sustainability, the same can be said for the components of nature. The word ‘nature’ usually has to do with connotations of being untouched, unruly and left alone. Multiple ecosystems make up this ideal of nature, from the rainforests in the tropics, to the arid regions in the desert, but another aspect of nature that should be considered are the environments that man has created. An example of these are urban green spaces. Within these areas, its own ecosystems are created with parks and reserves, streams and riverbanks, greenways and trails (Wolch, Byrne, & Newell, 2014). As built forms continue to expand within the landscape, these urban green spaces can contribute towards conservation practices as habitats are lost in masses throughout the world. Biodiversity is key to maintaining the health of the planet and with a significant amounts of species being lost, this is where ecological roles of greenways step in. In a Cameron Run study conducted in Washington (Bryant, 2006), this type of nature is needed so that people are able to be informed in biodiversity protection and can help sustain the life forms that these artificial green spaces bring about in their ecosystems.

Contrastingly, some environmentalists may point out that the value of nature is lost with this ‘fake nature’ (Elliot, 1982) and in some sense, this does ring true with its intrinsic values depreciated. However on the other side of the fence, it can be argued that preservations areas are being bounded by human constraints and therefore an environment has been created by us with designated forests and the like. From this, it could also be said that these values have been blurred. Although there is a feeling of superficiality with this type of built nature, at the end of the day what is most important is what people take away from these areas and the knowledge that they gain from the various ecosystems that co-exist in harmony whether in built urban green spaces or naturally occurring landscapes.

With all of these concepts of systems, sustainability and nature in mind, it is important to evaluate what these are all connected to, which is us, humans. As the only beings on this planet that has greatly affected the status of the environment, the economy and society as a whole, maintaining an equilibrium is important so that these fields can work in harmony towards sustainability. Although this is the ideal, the relationship shared between humans and nature is to ‘amend and repair. They seek to use it resourceful’ (Hofstra & Huisingh, 2014). From this journal article, Hofstra and Huisingh categorise the human-nature relationships into four distinct categories: contradiction, separation, connection and unity. Contradiction within this framework impairs the environment by placing it within economic models. By doing so, the resources losses are in favour of capital gain, thus imbalances between these subsets hamper the movements towards sustainability. As a result of recognising issues with sustainability and the impact humanity has had, the relationship to nature in most cases tends to be removed; separated so to speak. Differences are recognised and the manner these issues are tended towards are generally in a curative way; trying to meet expectations without necessarily providing proper preventative strategies. Human-nature connections are extremely important in striving towards sustainability. As we co-exist, the balance between systems rely on the actions and behaviours that humans undertake resulting in the current sustainability practices now and measures that are being explored to improve this relationship. Lastly, unity can be viewed as understanding of these current issues, working together towards interdisciplinary solutions and making changes towards achieving the goal of sustainability within our systems.

Although human kind has had negative impacts in regards to the current state of the environment as well as the economy (in some regions of the world), it is vital that the interactions between humans and nature are able to reach a sense of equilibrium. At policy level, focusing on preventative measures rather than reaching targets are key. If ideal sustainability is to be reached, levels of knowledge need to be shared between economists and environmentalists, so that collaborative approaches can result in equality and raised awareness across social, environmental and economic aspects.

Beder, S. (2002). Economy and environment: competitors or partners? Pacific Ecologist, 3(spring), 50-56.

Bender, H., Judith, K., & Beilin, R. (2012). Sustainability: a model for the future (H. Bender Ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.

Bryant, M. M. (2006). Urban landscape conservation and the role of ecological greenways at local and metropolitan scales. Landscape and Urban Planning, 76(1–4), 23-44. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2004.09.029

Elliot, R. (1982). Faking Nature. Inquiry, 25(1), 81-93.

Hofstra, N., & Huisingh, D. (2014). Eco-innovations characterized: a taxonomic classification of relationships between humans and nature. Journal of Cleaner Production, 66(0), 459-468. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.11.036

Sveiby, K.-E. (2009). Aboriginal Principles for Sustainable Development as Told in Traditional Law Stories. Wiley InterScience. doi: 10.1002/sd.389

Wolch, J. R., Byrne, J., & Newell, J. P. (2014). Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ' just green enough'. Landscape and Urban Planning(125), 234-244.

Charmaine Harris 760 703Reshaping EnvironmentsTutorial 23 Friday