06/12/2020
Really recommend this podcast for a Sunday afternoon listen. Hosted by: The Wild podcast
https://forthewild.world/listen/dr-natasha-myers-on-growing-the-planthroposcene-204
I enjoyed it so much I listened to it TWICE yesterday, as I had to make some notes the second time. Taking some brilliant lessons with me; which maybe others can take as we are in the more reflective time of the year. So I’ve written a short essay on it below for anyone who’s interested. Also partly timed to reflect on World Soil Day yesterday...I couldn’t think of anything short and snappy to write. Really, I can’t talk about soil without the integration of everything that affects soil..so this is partly a reflection on how I’ve been feeling/thinking about the coalescing crises we are facing and how they are tied to our disconnection from ecology & ourselves:
The podcast takes a position of a fantasy, a possible future and a vision for what Dr Natasha Myers names the 'Planthroposcene'; where humanity literally grows itself out of the 'dangerous' place of the Anthropocene, through more complete relationships with plants and other non-human species.
They position the Anthropocene rightly as a dangerous, violent place that we should be working to get out of as soon as possible. It is not a place to be in awe of. A feeling that seemingly permeates so much of the 'rational', scientific and patriarchal culture at the moment.
I particularly love the section on 'reverence'. Which is something many of us have lost, and something I have only started to nurture (or return to) over the past few years (really as I started to reconnect with wild-food, herbalism and local ecologies). Reverence, in white/western culture is posited as such an unscientific/non-rational term and idea in the eyes of our mechanical, patriarchal world. Seen as 'mystical', 'feminine', ‘spiritual’ and other terminologies. No doubt this anti-life position has its roots in anti-indigenous, colonial, hetero-patriarchal domination. Along with the need to break our connection with the land here in Britain during the industrial revolution. (See further reading on the ‘Plantationocene’; positioning the world ecological crisis as a cause of anti-indigenous, racist, settler colonialism starting from the 13th Century to present https://rb.gy/p933aw)
Reverence, really is a natural feeling, something we feel every day when we go out an interact with nature. The patterns on a leaf, the crashing of the waves, Gannets diving, a Robin hopping about the garden. Such a natural feeling, that we all know. Something we share with each other when we speak of nature. Yet our day-to-day reality and culture forces us to break from this reverence, knowing so much of the current system is damaging and destroying life. In order to continue (and survive) in this system, we have to periodically, regularly, or completely break that reverence (I would say we have no choice in the matter). For example, throwing out the land-fill bin bags: knowing fine well it’s going to be ploughed into the earth....to exist for millions of years: poisoning the soil, polluting the sky and waterways..killing life..
This is a daily rupture from our love for nature...something I know every single one of us does not want....and is very much a source of our collective pain. The lesson I take from this is to embrace this reverence. Embrace the love we feel for nature, the relationships we build with plants, fungi, other animals...
Dr Myers speaks of thanking plants, fungi, life. This is something I've naturally started to do over the years (and I’m sure many other foragers & herbalists do the same). Building a relationship with another organism. Respecting it, acknowledging them as another entity. Acknowledging the reciprocal relationship we have with all organisms.
This leads onto the idea of anthropomorphism. Where Dr Myers argues that the Western scientific realm’s position against anthropomorphism is inherently anti-indigenous and colonial; where animism (the worship of non-human/animal Gods) is common among indigenous and pre-colonial communities. This is no surprise, and is something that speaks to me, coming from a scientific background; where the ‘rational’ and ‘mechanical’ view of life is positioned as 'the only way'. Any deviation is anti-science, and therefore ‘useless’.
But really, this rational and mechanical world view is the very reason we are at this juncture of mass extinction, soil exhaustion, ocean acidification, the killing of the Amazon, the Great Boreal Forest ablaze, coral bleaching. It is not by mistake that the bastions of Rationalism, Liberalism and The (Western) Scientific Method (UK, Western Europe, US) are now reeling from the effects of Covid-19; with second and third waves (or one Giant wave) killing hundreds of thousands of people across the two continents. All this science? With no foundation in reverence for nature. With no love or respect for human life...the science is meaningless. The numbers do not lie.
For me the lesson here is the need to listen, learn and centre the people who have and still interact with the land deeply: indigenous people, peasant farmers (who produce most food for the world), the humans who still have reverence, love and reciprocal relationships for nature. It teaches me that it is a natural thing to project an image of a being on nature: a plant, a mushroom, a squirrel! It may be that the plant, fungi or squirrel indeed are projecting a personality onto you! It teaches me that the way we individualise, and personalise other entities is entirely rational. It is our bodies and minds telling us that that other being should be protected, acknowledged and loved.
Finally Dr Myers comments on the ‘Apocalyptic Thinking’ that is endemic to our society right now. Dr Myers argues that this ‘Apocalyptic Thinking’ serves Capitalism, or what is named ‘Apocalypse Forever’: where capitalism actually thrives, and profits off disaster and death. Once again, the numbers do not lie. For example: Billionaires becoming $637 billion richer since the start of the pandemic and the super-profits gained from the destruction of the Amazon. It is without doubt, capitalism serves apocalypse, and apocalypse serves capitalism.
This apocalyptic thinking and lack of imagination that is common in Western Society is partly to do with positionality. Where many in the US/UK/Europe will and are experiencing the ecological crisis in fundamentally different ways compared to people of the Global South, and dispossessed people within the European sphere.
We need to get out of this apocalyptic thinking. It is fundamentally reactionary to concede that ‘the world is going to end’ or ‘we are f**ked’…. As my friend recently described to me...this way of thinking is disabling. It is disabling our ability to live, feel joy and fight for a better and liveable planet. Furthermore, the apocalypse has already happened for many people at home and globally, over many centuries...To imagine as if it is 'still to come' is to give ground for things getting worse.
Predictions and visions of the future are useful as it feedbacks on our values, feelings and decisions today. But if we emphasise and believe this vision of the future, then we've already given up...so what is the point? 'Apocalyptic thinking' serves no-one but the benefactors of crisis.
Dr Myers summarises that we instead need to aspire to something liveable, aspire for regeneration...and that it doesn’t need to be destruction. Through reconnection with nature and each other. Embracing our reverence and love for the wild. And for our value on human life. We can and will grow ourselves out of the deadly place that is the Anthropocene. I believe this is possible. In fact I NEED to believe its possible. And I hope if you've read this far, you can too.
Let’s grow the future we need to thrive and love, in a reverence for ourselves: in reverence for ‘the whole’.
Dr. Natasha Myers cultivates a body of thought and practice that prioritizes the intertwined relationship between plants and people, aptly referred to as the Planthroposcene. She leads us to a world where magic happens as we discuss finding non-human guides, the responsibility we have to make room f
