Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned


to discord. The proportions and accommodations that ensured the stability of existing arrangements are overthrown. Of all organic beings, man alone is to be regarded as essentially a destructive power.


~George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature (1864)


and inspiring environments and encour- ages learning, inquisitiveness and alert- ness,” reports the University of Wash- ington’s College of the Environment, in Green Cities: Good Health. The American Planning Association stresses the importance of integrating green space into urban neighborhoods. Not only does so-called “metro nature” improve air and water quality and reduce urban heat island effects, urban wilds such as Pittsburgh’s Nine Mile Run and Char- lotte, North Carolina’s Little Sugar Creek Greenway also restore natural connections in densely populated city centers.


Natural Intelligence A growing number of scientists say that research about our place in nature has sparked fresh thinking about our role and devastated quaint notions about our species’ superiority. “Single-celled slime molds solve mazes. Brainless plants make correct decisions and bees with brains the size of pinheads handle ab- stract concepts,” points out Anthropolo- gist Jeremy Narby, author of the ground- breaking book Intelligence in Nature. At a national conference of Bi- oneers, an organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and San Francisco that gathers nature-minded social and sci- entific innovators, Narby said: “We are nearly identical to many animals. Many behaviors once thought to be exclusively human are shared by other species. The zone of the specifically human, as deter- mined by science, has been shrinking.” We haven’t lost the ability to tap that primal animal inside, even if most of us are more likely to “venture into the forest” by watching a movie or playing video games. We may feel cut off from our instincts, but studies show time in the woods can do wonders to


restore the keenness of our senses to connect with the subtle changes in natural habitat, the movements of oth- er species and the changing seasons. The rise of human civilizations may


have taken “survival of the fittest” in new directions, often decidedly tamer ones, but experts ranging from scientific researchers to lifestyle analysts say hu- mankind is still hardwired by our more primitive past. Despite the ingenious ways we’ve devised to exploit other life forms, capitalize on Earth’s resources and protect ourselves from nature’s sometimes terrifying power, our fate re- mains linked to natural laws and limits,


from nurturing our body’s immune sys- tem to resolving planet-sized problems like climate change. “‘Nature’ is our natural environ-


ment,” according to Selhub. We don’t have to move to the country to reconnect, she says. “Even spending 20 minutes a day outside has an effect.” Houseplants, nature photos and aromatherapy Earth scents can also help indoor environments better reflect our own nature. The wealth of research and com- mon sense wisdom is aptly summed up by celebrated author Wendell Berry in The Long-Legged House. “We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it’ll be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.”


Christine MacDonald is a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C., whose specialties include health and science. Visit ChristineMacDonald.info.


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