How Are the Relationships Between Humans and Nature Important for Moving Towards Sustainability?

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How are the relationships between humans and nature important for moving towards sustainability? In this essay, I seek to show that the easiest way to achieve sustainability is by examining our own tenuous connection to nature, using it to push ourselves further. I will initially define my terms, giving a working definition of the essay question, before investigating the physical and moral impacts nature has upon humanity through case studies. I will also show how our relationship in regards to nature may be used in both physical, moral and social ways so as to bring about a sustainable society and that this is all achievable now, there is no "silver bullet" (As put by Adams, R. (2008)) required for us to survive, just a change in thinking styles and commitments to certain technologies. Nature has been defined by many different terms because of its direct link to the various cultures of the time, with definitions ranging from basics such as: "nature is all" (attributed to an unknown Buddhist Philosopher) to more exact definitions suggesting nature is everything, except that which is man-made. William Cronon (1995) recognized this fact, believing nature to be fluid, equivalent to "...the creation of very particular human cultures at certain moments in history" (W. Cronon 1995, p.69). This definition, as well as the one found by Price, from his own research into Australian's definitions of nature, suggested nature ranged from: "authenticity, simplicity, reality..." to "...the primitive..., the exotic, innocence,..." (Price, 1995 p.160) thus helping to create my own working definition of nature as; anything which is not made by or reliant on humans as well as humans themselves is a part of nature. This working definition relates particularly to the basis of the relationships between humans and nature, for both are quite intricately connected to one-another.

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