This is not a listicle. This is a plea; a desperate plea from an ecologist to everyone who is anyone. Start learning more about our neighbors.
The more I learn about the environmental hardships of our planet, the more I I realize the root of the problem is that us humans have been awful neighbors. We have lost touch with our naturalist heritage. We have forgotten the relationships which have seen us through ice ages, tsunamis, and hurricanes. We have forgotten their names. Our selfish desire to ‘fly solo’ on the planet is no longer working. We need to reform.
The reformation of environmental consciousness should be taught in schools — -more progressively than it is today. It should be encouraged by governments and policies. It should be rewarded. But the system we now live in is broken, and I fear we can no longer rely on the external for inspiration. We have to find it within ourselves. I have some ideas on how we can do that.
I spent several years demonstrating labs in universities. I instructed mostly field-based courses covering plant and animal biology. Over the years I juggled many personalities, opinions, and attitudes towards the natural world. However, I have seen enough light bulbs go off in the heads of our youth that I believe I can defend what I am about to say.
The more we learn about the natural world, about our neighbors (the ~8 million species we share this planet with), the more human we become. It allows our own minds to be stretched, awed, and intrigued. It helps us evolve. Don’t you want to be a better human?
The first order of business, for all of us, is to become better students. We should never stop learning. I promise you, the more you continue to learn, the more rewarding and addicting it becomes.
. . .
If somebody asked me ten years ago if I liked birds, I don’t believe I would have said yes. Birds fly. I do not. This alone prevented me from getting close to them and appreciating them as a kid. I did not take the time to study them and as a result, I did not “know” them. But this all changed when I entered university.
It was in university that I met professors and lab demonstrators that were very passionate and knowledgeable about birds. They began, in my head, as the crazy, eclectic bird people. They certainly dressed the part. Funny how perspectives change, though. When I actually went out into the field with an ID guide and a set of binoculars, I realized just how addicting the activity was. These people were on to something.
I started with identifying a few of the obvious species — the ones we all grow up knowing like robins, crows, and chickadees. But then my eyes began to discover species I had never noticed before. It was like an investigation was born.
An unfamiliar bird appears. The clock starts ticking. You have a limited time to observe this new species and capture as many mental images as you can. You look at your guide, then back at the bird. Not a match, so you start again. Quickly, it may vanish any moment!
It is incredibly nerdy. I’ll be the first to admit it. But I was hooked.
I began studying the birds’ behaviour while I observed them. I noticed birds eating blackberries from a thicket adjacent to our campus lake. I later learned that this plant was Himalayan blackberry — an aggressive invasive species in our region. I learned that by eating the berries, the birds help disperse the seeds in their droppings, facilitating the invasion. Himalayan blackberry is also a greedy plant, and can grow aggressively near water ways to choke out native vegetation. This causes a decrease in local biodiversity, and can have further impacts on water quality. All of these connections made my head spin. So much knowledge stemming from the simple act of watching birds!
I concede, I was not immediately fascinated by the birds themselves. I believe I was more attracted to discovering the plethora of species I have never really noticed before. The addiction spilled over into plants, insects, and even fungi. If it was living, I wanted to know it, or at least know what to call it.
Years later, I took a coral reef ecology course and the majority of the course was identifying reef fish on snorkel excursions. It began as an assignment, but quickly turned into a compulsion. Trust me, once you start learning the names of the animals you see in the wild, it changes you. Even if you know only a handful of fish names while you’re snorkeling, when you stumble upon them in the wild, you see them differently. You feel you know them. You slowly become convinced you have an established relationship with that species as you observe it moving and eating and interacting with others. Over time, you may even feel convicted to protect it.
Perhaps your mind does not possess that same sense of curiosity mine does. But I wouldn’t be entirely truthful if I said I was always this curious about animals. It is a practice, and a very rewarding one at that. There are a myriad of reasons as to why I think you’ll enjoy it too, and why I think naturalism as a hobby will help save our planet.
Firstly, knowing plants and animals is basically instinct for us. It can be overwhelming at first, and I believe that is what detracts some people from exercising their curiosity. There are too many plants. Too many birds. You can’t possibly know them all. Well, that may be true. But our brains also have an amazing capacity for identification. It’s how we’ve survived the last two million years on this dangerous planet. We’ve learned to recognize what is food and what is not, what might harm us and what might help us. Wouldn’t it be a useful skill to refine?
The more time we spend outside learning the names of new species, the more opportunity we have to observe the rhythms, relationships, and natural dramas that take place outdoors. It changes how we perceive the world. We find ourselves not caring about just one species, but the whole community; the entire system. I truly believe that this practice improves our perspective of nature and transforms the role we play as humans within it.
An added bonus — knowledge is sexy. I could reference many papers on this subject, but I do not want this piece to become an essay. You can research for yourself or consult other’s opinions. Being knowledgeable of the environment, especially of the cute and cuddly animals we share our environment with, is attractive. Not only this, it can give you more conversation pieces than just simply talking about the weather.
When you think about it, we too are animals. When we see others who are really good at being human, that is, they know their surroundings and are respectful of their home, it’s endearing. It’s pleasing. For some, it may even be a turn on… that is as much as I’ll say about this for now.
Being animals ourselves means we all possess the capacity to appreciate other forms of life. We may be losing touch with our primitive side, but it’s still there, I promise. In our modern society, we may not devote much thought to our desire for going on a long hike through the mountains, or what beckons us to go camping out in the wilderness. I believe we don’t think about it, because it is a natural impulse, just like a hunger for food. Our bodies were made to be outside, and when we deprive them of that freedom for too long, the hunger only grows stronger. We are starving ourselves of our natural inclinations.
There is a psychological element to experiencing nature that has been disconnected in many people today. But I believe this broken connection can be refused. Disconnected people only need to be shown their curiosity for the wild, and it will gradually become more visceral.
As we come to appreciate more about our surroundings and the wonderful communities of species that inhabit them, we find more interest in the average outdoor adventure. Strolling through an urban park will become more enlightening when you see familiar faces in the trees. Hiking transforms into an exciting natural expedition with opportunities to take in the sights and sounds that you’re separated from in the city.
Most importantly, the more we learn about our planet, the more we are bound to care for it. I know this because when we have people in power who have tasted and benefited from a strong relationship with nature, they have made sound judgement in conserving it. The opposite is true for those who are disconnected.
. . .
Years ago when I worked for a conservation agency, I had to present to our city council for assistance in a recovery effort for our local toad species. It was heartbreaking to stand before a council of decision makers who were terribly under-educated about our local wildlife. Many of them were unfamiliar with the species, let alone its conservation status. Every year, hundreds of toads were being squashed during their annual migration across roadways. Even for the council members who were familiar with the scene of dead toads on a roadway, they did not seem at all concerned by it. Apparently it did not click for them that this could be endangering the future of these poor toads. It was tragic.
This is why we need to be better students. If you see animals dead on a roadway and don’t think to yourself how that roadway might be affecting wild animals and their habitat, it is probably because you haven’t learned enough to even raise the question. That is a problem, and a contributing factor to why we find ourselves where we are today. With islands of trash in our oceans, ongoing threats to our food and water security, and the causation of what scientists refer to as Earth’s sixth mass extinction. We destroy not because we want to, but because we don’t know what we’re destroying.
We can change this. I know more and more people every day are starting to care and recognize the power we have to change. We don’t need other people to teach us how to care. We can find this inspiration in ourselves. Grab a pair of binoculars. Go outside. Be a nerd. There is, very literally, a living world out there waiting for you to discover it.
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This post was previously published on Greener Together and is republished here with permission from the author.
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Photo credit: Curtis Abney