Nature That Makes Us Human: Why We Keep Destroying Nature and How We Can Stop Doing So

The book Nature That Makes Us Human explores the ecological and societal consequences of the unbridled development of human activities and seeks to answer the question of how to stop destroying our life-support system and reach harmony between humans and nature. It identifies avenues for human societies to break the current deadlock and forge a relationship with the natural world based on a simple observation that humans have a nature that defines them as a unique species beyond their cultural differences.

Format: Hardback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 02 June 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, resource depletion, and the emergence of new diseases have long been recognized as the ecological and societal consequences of unbridled human development. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence highlighting the risks associated with our destruction of nature, why do we continue to engage in practices that threaten our very existence? How can we break the cycle of destruction and establish a harmonious relationship between humans and nature?

This book seeks to answer these pressing questions. It explores the inherent limitations of modern society in fundamentally altering its relationship with nature, instead perpetuating collective fictions such as subject-object duality, matter-mind duality, rationality's primacy, and the human species' superiority over all other life forms. The subsequent chapters identify pathways that could enable human societies to break the current deadlock and forge a new relationship with the natural world.

At the heart of this path lies a fundamental observation: humans possess a nature that sets us apart as a unique species beyond our cultural differences. Within this nature, we share a common set of fundamental needs. The expression and satisfaction of these needs offer an opportunity to reconnect humans with nature in all its diverse forms.

Nature That Makes Us Human combines cutting-edge scientific discoveries in biology and psychology with deep philosophical inquiry, alongside economic, political, and historical considerations. It aims to understand the motivations behind our continued destruction of nature and provide insights into how we can embark on a path toward a new relationship with nature tomorrow. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in comprehending and addressing the current ecological crisis.

Weight: 380g
Dimension: 243 x 162 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197628430