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The Post Carbon Reader Series: Culture and Behavior
Remapping Relationships: Humans in Nature
By Gloria Flora
 
About the Author
Gloria Flora is founder and director of Sustainable Obtainable Solutions, an organization dedicated to the sustainability of public lands and of the plants, ani-mals, and communities that depend on them. In her twenty-two-year career with the U.S. Forest Service, she became nationally known for her leadership in eco-system management and for her courageous principled stands: As supervisor of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in north-central Montana, she made a land-mark decision to prohibit natural-gas leasing along the 356,000-acre Rocky Mountain Front. Flora is a Fellow of Post Carbon Institute.Post Carbon Institute© 2010613 4th Street, Suite 208Santa Rosa, California 95404 USAThis publication is an excerpted chapter from
The  Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises
, Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch, eds. (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media, 2010). For other book excerpts, permission to reprint, and  purchasing visit http://www.postcarbonreader.com.
 
RAPPNG RATNSHPS: HANS N NATR 1 TH PST CARBN RAR SRS
The depth and breadth of science in the disciplines of natural systems and ecology form an impressive knowl-edge base. And there’s little dispute that natural sys-tems and their resources provide fundamental human needs: air, water, food, shelter. Such clear understand-ing should allow for effective decisions and rapid response to threats to our environment. Yet, repeatedly, societies have enacted policies—and not only tolerated but encouraged actions and choices—that have directly and indirectly damaged ecosystems, the atmosphere, and, in turn, human health. Understanding why we act against our own best interests becomes more and more critical as the impacts of global climate change and unsustainable use of finite resources literally put the survival of millions of species at risk. e mounting and interrelated calamities of a carbon-laden atmosphere and fossil-fuel depletion—chaotic temperatures and weather, melting ice fields and per-mafrost, rising sea levels, square miles of forest leveled to access and squeeze oil out of tar sands and shale—are well documented. e profound effects on people,  plants, and landscapes are no longer speculative theory but reality. Proposals for mitigation and adaptation solu-tions and innovations abound as small factions scramble to protect the very systems that sustain life. But large-scale, definitive action and coordinated responses have  yet to solidify. Even benign proposals are challenged and rebuffed. Our erstwhile leaders perfect their sound bites to play to their base—but do nothing of substance to avoid offense to their corporate sponsors.Resolution of this impasse between science, knowledge, and action requires urgent attention. But little will change until we apprehend why humans, particularly in “advanced” societies, resist altering these practices that degrade our life-supporting natural systems. The disconnection between humans and their environment lies at the heart of the problem.
Backcasting for Answers
There is no question that as humans evolved, the natu-ral world provided for every physical need: water, food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and tools. But nature also satisfied deeper needs and desires. For millennia, the beauty and mystery of the land have drawn people, enticed them into its unknown corners, enchanted them, challenged them, and bestowed a sense of free-dom. Whether by dint of necessity or by choice, people gravitated to particular landscapes. Once a community of people came to know and understand the plants, animals, resources, and seasons of a particular locale, a whole body of profound place-based knowledge and  wisdom developed. That wisdom of place was passed to and enhanced by each successive generation. Those  possessing the keenest knowledge of place were revered.
 
Little will change until we apprehend why humans resist altering practices that degrade our lie-supporting natural systems.

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