The emotional disconnect between people—especially children—and nature is one of the most pressing, overlooked crises of our time. Today the health of humans and the places they live is now under direct threat. Ecological sustainability—humanity living in a mutually enhancing relationship with the rest of nature—may well be impossible unless people care for the places they live. Yet here in the high-tech 21st Century, we’ve become more alienated from nearby nature than ever before. At this perilous moment in history, how can we broker a new human-nature relationship, one that embraces both technology and the natural world?
The answer, says Scott Sampson, is a dramatic scaling of the New Nature Movement. And this scaling, he argues, will occur only through deep, cross-sector collaborations encompassing K-12 schools, higher education, non-profits, government, and business. In particular, the recent trend toward place-based “learning ecosystems” has tremendous potential to redefine education and carry humanity toward a “rewilding” of both places and minds. At the heart of this transformation will be a much-needed mindshift, in which we transition from seeing ourselves as outside, above, and in control of nature to being embedded inside, and collaborating with, the natural world. In this presentation, Sampson outlines the key elements of this revolution, including promising examples and ways that we can all participate.