Our disconnect from Nature is as obvious as the White House’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein. Since we abuse, bulldoze, pollute, and trash the environment with little thought, it’s no wonder our relationship is built on violence.

A recent study found human connection to the natural world has declined by some 60% since 1800. The percentage since 2000 must be significantly higher. Our “civilized” society, at least in the Global North, is addicted to cars, gambling, technology, social media, the internet, video games, robots, streaming services, and fake plastic trees.

We are but a part of Nature, but, because we wear pants and have guns, we think we rule it. Hurricane Melissa would like a word.

The study published in July noted computer modeling predicts that levels of Nature connectedness will continue to decline unless there are far-reaching policy and societal changes, such as better introducing kids to the natural world and radically greening urban environments.

We ignore Nature at our peril.

The paper’s researchers tracked the loss of Nature from our lives by using data on urbanization, the loss of wildlife in neighborhoods, and parents no longer passing on engagement with the natural world to their children.

Their modeling predicts an ongoing “extinction of experience,” with future generations continuing to lose an awareness of Nature because of its diminishing presence in an increasingly human-built environment.

To quote Daffy Duck, “What a revolting development.”

We have been able to evolve and advance because Nature provides the conditions and resources that make our existence possible. But rampant consumption and runaway expansion inside a finite system eventually leads to collapse. The foundation is disintegrating, as the air is becoming noxious, the soil rancid, the ocean acidic, and our bodies plasticized.

Our gluttony is placing the well-being of future generations in jeopardy. It has already led to the mass deaths of countless animal and plant species. Earth’s sixth mass extinction is being driven by our relentless burning of fossil fuels and our unsustainable use of land and water.

We represent less than 1% of all living things, but our footprint is enormous. We wield sledgehammers and chainsaws. We drive Hummers and Cybertrucks. We pour concrete and lay down pavement everywhere. We relentlessly manufacture and use weapons of mass destruction. We invented leaf blowers.

Our global ecological footprint surpasses Earth’s biocapacity by some 35%, and that percentage continues to rise. Currently, humans use as much ecological resources as if we lived on 1.8 Earths. The United States and much of the Global North are the biggest hogs.

We, literally, can’t live this way.

We desperately need to repair our relationship with Nature. It can’t be fixed by continuing to rely on the tired corporate-controlled, business-as-usual model of environmental management that puts profit over everything else.

It will take a lot of work, and plenty of behavioral changes. We must drastically and immediately reduce the amount of fossil fuels we burn. We must rein in our consumption, like no new iPhone every year. We must break our addiction to single-use plastics. We can’t be ruled by the mega-wealthy and the MAGA-corrupt.

We need to start showing Nature respect.

We can start by giving Nature self-protective rights. This idea was first introduced, at least to the capitalist world, in 1972 by University of Southern California law professor Christopher Stone. He proposed that “we give legal rights to forests, oceans, rivers, and other so-called ‘natural objects’ in the environment — indeed, to the natural environment as a whole.”

It’s about time we start enacting a bunch. The status quo needs to be imploded.

We need to stop viewing Nature’s health as irrelevant and environmental destruction from only a human point of view. Despite our arrogance, we haven’t transcended Nature, and we can’t survive without a healthy, productive natural world.

A growing number of scientists are backing laws that recognize Nature has inherent rights and intrinsic value. Inside Climate News recently reported that a group of wetlands scientists wants the biological communities they study given rights.

These aqueous ecosystems are vital to planetary stability. They act as the planet’s kidneys, filtering pollution, recharging drinking water sources, sequestering carbon dioxide, and preventing storm damage and flooding.

Reality is humans can’t live without Nature, but Nature can thrive without us. While we can easily live without corporations, these human-made constructs with no sentient existence are considered “people” with the legal rights of “personhood.” We don’t provide Nature with the same courtesy.

If we continue to bulldoze Nature’s rights, our hubris is going to bury us.

Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.