We need a cultural shift to solve the nature crisis

This post is by Professor Tom Oliver , associate pro-vice-chancellor for research (environment) at the University of Reading, and author of The Nature Delusion.

It’s clear that our civilisation is no longer a civilising force. Despite negative impacts on the natural world being well evidenced for decades, our society continues to destroy nature, through a highly extractive economy and the pollution it creates. Now, the damage has become so severe that the basis of our civilisation is at risk. Damage to nature is generating ‘systemic risks’, such as food insecurity and geopolitical strife, and creating a potentially uninhabitable climate.

We are locked in vicious cycles
Every natural disaster costs vast amounts to recover from, as well as reducing trust in governance, impacting health and wellbeing and weakening ecosystems further. Put simply, our financial, social, human and natural capital are being eroded, weakening our capacity to respond to future catastrophes.

What are the solutions to get us out of this dilemma? Governments around the world tend to focus on technological innovation. For example, to enhance food production they may seek to use precision farming, genetic modification and robotic pollinators. Many economic solutions are being touted, such as monetising biodiversity, to inform offsetting schemes and global markets, which may or may not redirect financial capital away from ecocidal activities.

These solutions haven’t worked so far and may be making things worse (particularly when not accompanied by deeper cultural changes).  For example, economic solutions that treat nature as a lifeless asset actually increase our psychological disconnection and make us care for it less. They replace doing things for a morally right reason with a transactional relationship. Similarly, technological fixes kick the can down the road, suggesting we don’t need to solve the root causes now.

A deeper cultural shift is needed
So, what can deal with these systemic risks? A number of international science policy agencies concede that a deeper shift in mindset and values is needed to shift the dial on these ‘wicked problems’.

A recent report from the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) highlights three, interrelated, root causes of the environmental crisis: disconnection from, and domination over, nature and people; concentration of power and wealth; and prioritisation of short term, individual and material gains. All these relate strongly to the culture we live in and suggest we need to ‘fix ourselves’ to make progress.

Reports from the UN Environment Programme, UN Development Programme, the European Environment Agency and other credible bodies come to similar conclusions. Yet, despite governments ratifying such reports, concrete plans to catalyse change are mostly absent.

Reconnection is the route forward
So, the big question is how do we shift our culture from one that fuels a planet-wrecking economy (with underpinning ecocidal finance, legal and governance systems), to one that enables us to live in more harmonious balance with the planet?

Fortunately, there is growing understanding of how to deepen our sense of connection to each other and the natural world, in ways commensurate with science. These approaches can also enable a culture of sufficiency, less dependent on extrinsic material gains. They range from meaningful experiences in nature, such as painting, photography and mindfulness, to knowledge-based and introspective activities, like reading, group learning and meditation, and include cautious use of new technologies.

The biggest scientific challenge of our time, even though off the radar of most governments and mainstream research funders, is how to critically assess the evidence for these approaches, to refine and combine them into evidence-based developmental programmes?

Promising developments exist that can be built upon. For example, excellent initiatives from the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts and many pioneering schools are connecting children with nature; to help businesses put nature at the heart of their organisational design, new frameworks are emerging; and exciting innovations are exploring the legal Rights of Nature to develop new governance approaches that move beyond a misplaced sense of human exceptionalism.

From these bright spots we may build a wiser culture, where behaviours that restore rather than destroy nature are the norm. They can also ‘cascade upwards’ to inform new structures to govern the economy. We can learn from older cultures, science and our own deep introspection, to reorient civilisation to be a civilising force again.