The Biosphere and Individual Biology

The ways in which individuals care about personal body maintenance has increased dramatically in years past and created a new economy around fitness. Land preservation in nature could reflect that same care and concern. Both areas, land and body, require time for results to be seen, effort to maintain, and proper supplemental care for long term sustainable health. In a philosophy of mindfulness precautionary action leads to conservation and preservation of our global environment. The creation of the National Parks, former Environmental Protection Agency policies for mine cleanup, and careful reimplementation of Wolves in Yellowstone represent the power of systemic thinking for creating resiliency in sustainability for our environment. In the ways that typical western society governs land practice, there have been massive systemic failures, and many impactful land ethic successes. Through positive concentration of society’s actions mindfulness through sustainable practice can remediate former in discrepancies. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the closure of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons facility outside of Boulder Colorado, and court action for the Love Canal neighborhood in New York show the power of society to act in better global environmental interest. Agency on behalf of Nature is beneficial to individuals, society, and the environment itself. 

The symbiotic relationship between nature and humans is proven in our value of ecosystem services as well as the physical impacts of eco-therapy, eco-psychology and early outdoor education can have on individuals. Without this precautionary action for society’s ecological unconsciousness there are serious ramifications. The feeling is described as a loss of identity because “…if you take them [society] away from their land, they feel the loss of heart’s ease as a kind of vertigo, a disintegration of their whole life.” Which the New York Times correlated to “Australian aborigines, Navajos and any number of indigenous peoples have reported this sense of mournful disorientation after being displaced from their land.”  The role of environmental identity must be a significant part of sustainability and best translated for potential change through the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote “The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.” Mindfulness creates a system for resiliency through identify which leads to the potential for change. Which, is crucial to solving the anthropocentric created climate change catastrophe. 

The individual’s impact on the environment is clearly represented through the unfortunate climate changes many have made. The examples are numerous for how many individual choices over extended time periods lead to dramatic effects on global climate, but not immediately visible to a single person. Yet, society understands the systemic results of ocean acidification leading to death of coral reefs, but perhaps not how the nitrogen cycle impacts the algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico. However, through a systemic mindfulness approach there are approaches to remedy these problems. There are strides being made to create solutions, with additional societal support, oceanic cleanup, reforestation, and the hole in the Ozone layer can be more effectively rectified. These accomplishments create an opportunity for continuing growth based on a positive experience and knowledge that these wicked problems can be solved. A negative approach through apocalyptic messaging sends an unachievable task, when the public needs support. However, this messaging in our rhetoric stems from the magnitude of these problems. To show the value for the environment similar to the ways society communicates physical health a critical analysis of the communication between popular companies, governmental policy and economic investment shows where society has room to grow based on our inherent environmental value. 

Patagonia’s protection of the environment in their corporate National Park campaign proves the economic value and dollar amount value that can be placed on the outdoors. The company saw the benefit in keeping areas where outdoor recreation occurs because it is where the company’s products are primarily used. Which Patagonia proved by suing the current administration because of the threat it creates their business. Through this line of systemic mindful approach the company states; “our articles of incorporation require that we [Patagonia] confront urgent environmental threats by investing our resources as a growing business into environmental nonprofits.” This is a part of their articles of incorporation because the business model is in a system with the environment as an intrinsic area that creates revenue profit for the company. Patagonia has value for an intrinsically valued environment. A thriving business shows there are reasons that society benefits from being outdoors, especially the great outdoors. In establishing precautionary protections for the National Parks President Theodore Roosevelt stated, "there can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred." 

Appreciating this beauty, the same way individuals view their own, especially as seen in current physical fitness trends, connects between self-love and E.O. Wilson’s Biophilia, and John Muir’s intrinsic value of Nature. The individual gains “in every walk with nature[.] One receives far more than he seeks.” An understanding referenced almost identically by nature which calls to society and harmonious action and more direct benefits for the physical body’s time in Nature. The concept of Eco-therapy for the human physical body shows that when “patients with trees instead of walls to look at also faced shorter postoperative stays and fewer moderate to strong painkillers. Patients who looked at pictures of open water felt less postoperative anxiety than patients with a white panel or no picture to look at.”. The physical body also heals from a closeness with nature, hospitals with outdoor facing windows reported that “exposure to natural views made for improved attention and less attentional fatigue after breast cancer surgery.” To summarize, the environmental values and the inherent draw to be a harmonious with nature E.O Wilson states that “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” Which is proven to be essential to systemic societal harmony “the living environment is what really sustains us.” From this quote, the deeper appreciation and understanding of the physical benefits to the individual. To continue this appreciation takes time, effort and supplemental care over long term for global gain. As biophilia states, “the growth of a naturalist is like the growth of a musician or athlete: excellence for the talented, lifelong enjoyment for the rest, benefit for humanity.”

Through a love of nature, fostering sustainable behavior stems the “ecological identity” within long term purchases of sustainable products, which companies continue to invest in, creating a new dominant social paradigm.