The Nature Of is a new podcast series from the nonprofit nature and culture magazine Atmos that speaks with prominent figures in conservation and culture about how humans relate to the natural world, and how they might heal and strengthen that relationship. On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, its host and Atmos editor-in-chief Willow Defebaugh details the series’ resulting revelations and why her publication covers the environment through the lens of community, identity, arts and culture. “From the beginning, we knew that we wanted to invite creative storytellers and artists into this conversation alongside scientists and journalists,” she explains. Storytelling and the arts, she says, house rarely tapped potential for helping people place themselves in the context of nature: “I think that what we need is to be changing people’s hearts, not just minds.” In this podcast episode, Defebaugh explains why traditional Western science has often eschewed concepts such as empathy, which has led to a disconnect where humans perceive themselves as separate from nature, and even other humans. This, she says, is at the root of our current environmental challenges. The climate crisis is just one manifestation of this deeper problem, she says, and treating it in isolation isn’t a solution to humanity’s broken relationship with nature and spirit. “I really worry [that] without addressing the root causes … [problems] will just be replicated in other forms.” She explains that greenhouse gas emissions are but “a symptom of a deeper disconnect, where we’ve lost sight of the relationship that…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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