Am I nature or am I environment?
Understanding the difference is key to you surviving the climate crisis.
The question, at its most fundamental level, is about you - the sustainability of you (alive/unalive), your life (family, friends, communities you care about), and things (breathable air, drinkable water, healthy food, etc.) that make it all possible.
Coincidentally, the climate crisis happens to be about the same.
Part 1 - The Question
Let’s start by breaking down the question, so we understand what we are trying to answer.
What is ‘I’?
This is one of the oldest unanswered questions known to exist - part of “Who am I?”, “Where do I/we come from?”, etc. While the quest is on to find answers to those, one thing we can be sure of is only you can define yourself.
Some of the common ways people describe themselves is by distinguishing themselves from the rest - rich or not-rich, family or not-family, oppressor or oppressed, young or old, this gender or that gender, this country or that country, have this or not have that, and was so then, is so now, or will be so in the future.
Whether these distinctions exist or not. Only you can tell.
What is ‘environment’?
The environment is the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, plant, program, etc. lives or operates. Everything other than itself (person, animal, plant, program, etc.) can be considered to be its environment (respectively).
Everything that is not you, is your environment. For example.
What is ‘nature’?
Nature, in the broadest sense, is everything that constitutes the universe.
Since you are reading/listening to and can understand this, you are part of the universe too.
Basically, nature is everything.
We now understand the parts of the question, but what is the question we are trying to answer? Why is the answer important for the climate crisis anyway?
The question “am I nature or am I environment?” is really about how you perceive yourself (and everything that is part of your life as a result). Do you consider yourself to be part of nature or do separate yourself from the environment? That’s the real question.
The answer determines if you - your family, friends, communities you care about, and everything that makes your life possible - will survive the climate crisis or not.
Only one of the answers makes it easy for others to survive the climate crisis as well, and the other only ensures that you don’t.
Let’s continue.
Part 2 - The Answer
Here are some things to consider that can help you decide the answer.
What if I am environment?
Whatever you define yourself to be in the universe (i.e. you) and the rest of the universe (i.e. the environment). By common sense, if you have to survive the climate crisis, only you have to survive it and not the environment (since it is not you).
If you are working to exist without the environment, know that the environment is working to exist without you. Here’s how.
You could be - the person reading this, the family you are part of, the communities you are part of, the country you are part of, few who have money or not, young or not, a certain gender or the other, etc.
The more you work to protect yourself (with walls of all kinds to hoard or exploit resources, build financial wealth at others’ expense, borders, river dams, undemocratic laws, etc.) and not the environment, the more the environment (including everyone not reading this, families that are not yours, communities you are not part of, countries you are not part of, others who don’t have money), works to protect itself over you; and if you care less about the environment (by allowing resources to be exploited, financial wealth to be built at others’ expense, borders to be built that don’t exist, or laws that don’t protect all), the environment (including everyone who protect and share resources, not build financial wealth at other’ expense, remove borders and river dams eventually, protect laws that protect all) cares less about you too. Either way, it’s a two-way street.
What if I am nature?
Whatever you define yourself to be in the universe (i.e. you) and the rest of the universe (i.e. the environment) can still be one and the same (i.e. nature). By common sense, if nature survives the climate crisis - you and the environment both survive as a result (since nature is both you and the environment).
If you work to protect nature, know that nature is working to protect you. Here’s how.
The more you work to protect nature (by not hoarding or exploiting resources, not building your financial wealth at others’ expense, not building borders or river dams eventually, and not protecting undemocratic laws for yourself), which in turn will protect you (through everyone not reading this, families that are not yours, communities you are not part of, countries you are not part of, others who don’t have money that will protect and share the limited resources they have, build more opportunities for everyone to build their financial wealth, remove borders and river dams eventually, protect laws that protect all including you). Win-win.
Depending on your curiosity, you might find 2, 5, 10s, 100s, 1000s, millions, billions, trillions, or an infinite number of ways you are part of and can take care of nature. When it comes to surviving the climate crisis, you wouldn’t want to leave anything to chance.
TL;DR Summary
You are nature - which is *both* you and the environment.
The more you work towards existing without or care less about the environment, the environment is working to care less about or exist without you too i.e. you will not survive the climate crisis.
The more you work towards protecting nature, the more nature works to protect you too i.e. you will survive the climate crisis.
If this is your first time reading the ‘One Earth Letter’ series, here are all the letters and topics to be expected in an attempt to build a human-friendly guide to the climate crisis; if you liked this one, you might like others as well - start with a topic you are most curious about and let curiosity take it from there. Don’t forget to subscribe though.