Nature and Creative Space

Naturalists of the past include the great Charles Darwin, who published “The Origin of Species” back in 1859, and ushered in an evolutionary way of seeing the world. We also have Linnaeus, who gave us the binomial classification system for species, and Alexander von Humboldt who contributed immensely to our understanding of the natural world. It was von Humboldt who first wrote about the link between weather, and human emotion, for example. He was also the first to render a scientific idea into something visually appealing, with his famous Naturgemalde picture that depicted the changes in species composition as one rose in elevation up a mountain.
American naturalists include John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Aldo Leopold, to name but a few. These people conceived of nature in a particular way, where nature was separate from human culture. And that remaining pristine wilderness areas had to be protected against the relentless march of industrial human progress.
This idea of nature was needed at the time. And it’s with thanks to this idea, and the work done by people of that time, that we still have intact nature areas across the globe in the form of National Parks and other protected nature areas.
We need to go beyond mere conservation and begin expanding BOTH our concept of nature, AND areas of the globe where nature is given more free reign.
Why can we no longer think of ourselves as separate from nature? Because we have ourselves become akin to a GEOLOGICAL FORCE. We are like the wind, waves, volcanoes, and tectonic plates. All of which we would instantly recognise as “nature.” There’s no denying our global effects on this earth. We have come to call this time in earth’s history “the Anthropocene” after the most active geological force: Homo sapiens.
If we can correctly reimagine what nature is and our place in nature, then I think our action in the ecological sphere will be far more effective. We can become SO effective, that our actions simply obsolete the ways of the old system. This is the vision of The New Naturalist. To get our model of reality SO RIGHT, that we can’t help but usher in a more beautiful world ALL of our hearts know is possible.
A message for creatives: Carve out the space and time to get your work done. Otherwise, that impulse within will eat you up form the inside out. You will become a hollow shell of a human being. It is NECESSARY for you to express creatively. It’s not an option. Nor is it just “a nice thing to do.” It is NECESSARY. Don’t let the world churn you up and spit you out onto the floor. FIGHT for your creativity and creative expression.