As we have seen throughout the course of our world history, imperial civilizations have continuously expanded and collapsed; to name a few: Ancient Greece, Roman, the Mayans and the British. Collapse was, in some ways, due to their disregard for the natural world and its naturally necessary processes; ignoring the environmental and its natural resource exhaustion while simultaneously expanding the scale and scope of their territories. When Europeans came to America in the 17th century, their attention was focused on their immediate needs and desires, through which they used the land as they pleased. During the 19th century, however, some advocates for the environment awakened, trying to change the developing attitudes of the country, though change was markedly slow and diminutive. The mid 20th century witnessed the sudden and frightening impacts of natural processes reacting to this human disregard: dust bowl, DDT toxicity of the environment, air & water pollution, etc. These events provoked a re-energized interconnectedness between humans and their ecosystems among a small minority of the population (>20%) (Weisman). In our current state, what has become most evident, is the human spiritual and psychological disconnection from the world/earth in relation to the unending natural processes of erosion; this remains potentially catastrophic for the Earth’s future, especially in terms of human lives and diversity of species.
Erosion (as defined**)1 in this essay will be viewed in terms of the psychological and spiritual processes of the ongoing disconnection between humans and the earth. The earth exists as an entity, both physically and spiritually, constantly changing and rotating. The earth embodies life, humans, animals, organisms, and plants, water and natural processes through which all life participates and exists. These natural processes, such as erosion, complete the life cycles of the planet and its inhabitants, birth, life, death, regeneration, and renewal. It is through these processes that life exists. Erosion is a process of change, deterioration and renewal. Some of the causes and properties, and/or elements, of erosion consist of: earth, air, fire, and water. Physical erosion is most evident in the constant changing, and redevelopment, of our landscape through storms, rushing water weathering rocks, carving hillsides, cliffs and canyons and transferring soil, wind wearing down land forms and fire regenerating forests, breaking down life to create new life. Erosion, in its physical manifestations in the human cityscapes, defines itself through cracked, stained and broken down roads and sidewalks, infrastructures and automobiles are dilapidated and piles of discarded waste are deposited almost anywhere. The earth’s natural processes of erosion whip through the cityscapes, destroying and ravishing the space through which humans nonchalantly rebuild their homes and malls; for example, Louisiana in 2006 after hurricane Katrina.
The psychology of erosion is played out in the minds of the humans, there seems to be this collective denial of the process of erosion in terms of death, change/physically and the illusory fantasy that nature will not prevail. The reality in which people live in America seems to be framed by its cultural and mainstream media networks, particularly those funded by corporations that depend upon insuring that people fight the erosive processes of aging and decay through purchasing their products (all of which of course cannot, will not, ever prevent death). Death seems to contain the same implications as erosion. The conceptual frame of “death” is perhaps the focal point of the disconnection of humans to the natural processes of erosion. Through death and decay, through erosion---with respect to the non-human planes of the Earth --- comes new life, new material for life, new building blocks for life. Medical practitioners define aging and the process of dying with a negative connotation in relation to the process of erosion. This collective consensual notion causes people to overreact (demand medical interventions against these erosions), strengthening the fear that makes the most natural of processes seem paralyzingly unacceptable. Through our actions and trepidations of dealing with death, humans devastate the landscapes; killing natural living organisms that would have aided in the processes of natural erosion, but now cease to exist. We bulldoze forests: for their potential medicine (yew trees and plants in the tropical rainforests); to grow non-native species of products to help us works towards immortality (bio-energy fuels, medicines, specialized paper products); and to get at the earth beneath them for endless riches (oil, gas, mineral wealth). Our agricultural revolution strips soils of needed life, freeing the topsoil to blow away and clog streams killing riparian habitats and fish; loosing silt into river systems to be trapped by dams (increasing their inability to hold water) and thus increasing the loss of wetlands and beaches that sustain whole biomes of life and species (Montgomery 9-25). We do the same with our cities and towns, our highways and harbors, our pipelines and airports.
In the American culture, there is a defiance about becoming old or letting things get old, buildings, new cars, etc. “Technology is problematizing death. Technology has frozen conditions between life and death;” our advancement in medical technology has also sufficiently prolonged human life, causing overpopulation and too much wear and tear on the earth, thus halting the natural processes of erosion (Hughes). Makeup, plastic surgery, wrinkle cream, all items and methods advertised in the American society to hide and deny the fact of appearing old and/or this process of physical human deterioration or erosion. People, animals, plants, etc, are suppose to die, that is part of the natural cycle that is exhibited daily in the wilderness and in the world. By altering nature, the spiritual connection between humans and the earth has rapidly declined. Human beings are no longer being present, listening to the natural world, or actually seeing they are caught up in their created consumptive realities, that continue to destroy and deplete the earth’s natural resources. Within the last 30 years, we have witnessed extreme changes in the earth’s climate patterns, some that have resulted in rather large catastrophic disasters, each weighing heavily on our loss of spiritual connection with the earth and our lack for psychological admittance for dealing with the natural aspects of living on planet earth. It would even be appropriate to suggest that because of humans’ lack of admittance and disconnection, they erode our economic systems and increase the instability of the human biome to sustain billions of people. Our fear of death promotes our destruction of the planet thus increasing our likelihood of death. This is being dysfunctional, being disconnected from the whole of the natural processes of all life. We, as a human species are devouring the earth at a rate of more than four earths combined; though we seem oblivious to the reality that we only have one (Global Footprint Network). 2
Part of the earth’s existence is this constant notion of change. As science has taught us about the evolutionary growth of the earth, it has been known that through billions of years to seconds of every ‘day,’ life on this planet constantly changes. New lives come into being and older lives are recycled back into the earth. In the current 21st century, there is no reason why this cycle would be any different. However, the human species, has managed to take over the entire world, thus forgetting its roots and where it originated. It has created its own vast materialistic capitalistic society that is seriously detrimental to the earth’s well being. Change is a part of all life. The human society in America, creates realities with false constructs, denying its very own existence, by which people live their lives, trying to find permanence when there is none. Humans are trained from the earliest age to fear death, the only actual and real certainty of their lives. Fearing the one thing that one knows for sure will happen, encourages the development of materialist illusions furthering the disassociation and disconnect. The planet is destroyed to prolong human life, sheltered in massive consumption and celebrity media.
Our spiritual and psychological disconnection with nature, has allowed us to forget that despite our denial, deceptions and disillusionment of the natural world, nature will prevail. Nature has an agenda, by which we have finite limits placed on available resources, human biomes, and population carrying capacity of the planet. If humans could get back to their roots, honor and respect the natural processes of nature, it seems that there might actually be hope for the planet and for human life.
In conclusion, there are people, and large groups, working everyday for the environment, but I don’t think people realize that the process of reconnection and preservation is a never-ending cycle. It is, and needs to be, constantly recognized and honored to re-establish connection. In my life, I try to be conscious and aware of every decision I make with my relationship with the earth; though it is indeed difficult at times living in this culture. It is vital and important to the sustainability of the planet that people become conscious of their dependent interconnectedness with the planet, everything else is ultimately an illusion. Changing collective human consciousness is possible. One of the earth’s foremost deep ecologists and leader of Australia’s environmental movement, John Seed, writes
“…since the day we were born, we have inherited shallow, fictitious selves, and have created an incredibly pervasive illusion of separation from nature. The fact that our sense of alienation from Nature is entirely an illusion can be demonstrated very simply by holding your breath for a few minutes. We can speak of “the atmosphere” as if it were somehow “out there.” But it is not “out there.” None of it is “out there.” The air, the water, the soil, it is all constantly migrating and cycling through us. There is no “out there,” it is all “in here,” but most modern people, even those who agree theoretically, don’t experience the world in this way. As long as the environment is “out there,” we may leave it to some special interest group like environmentalists to protect while we look after our “selves.” The matter changes when we deeply realize that the nature “out there” and that nature “in here” are one and the same, that the sense of separation no matter how pervasive, is nonetheless totally illusory. I would call the need for such realization the central psychological or spiritual challenge of our age.”
1 **Transitive verb 1 : to diminish or destroy by degrees: a : to eat into or away by slow destruction of substance (as by acid, infection, or cancer) b : to wear away by the action of water, wind, or glacial ice c : to cause to deteriorate or disappear as if by eating or wearing away.
2 The Global Footprint Network allows one to get an estimation of their own ecological footprint in relation to the rest of the world. He or she plugs in her own information about the sustainability of their own lives, information about everyday decisions that are detrimental to the well being of the planet. The outcome shows how many planet Earth’s you need to live your current lifestyle and how many Earth’s would be needed if everyone lived your current lifestyle. The average for the United States of America is 24 acres per person, which equals approximately 6 Earths.
