What Is Nature?

Note: Apparently, my post about the NYC mosque was confusing so please let me know if you don't understand what I'm talking about

People see nature as separate from themselves and everything around them. It is an almost abstract concept, something that can be found in designated areas and far-off lands. Nature is what you find when you stray from the path in your local park. It is what you see in pictures of the Amazon rainforest or pictures of Africa that don’t feature starving children.

But nature is everywhere and nature is everything. Nature is the building you sit in while you read this. It is your clothes and the car you drive. It is even the laptop you use at work or school. Nature is not an abstract concept nor is it anything you can separate from your everyday life or your surroundings. Nature is the world in its entirety.



You see, we like to think of certain areas, such as natural parks, as being nature but really nature is nothing more than the earth’s processes, whether that is cats reproducing or the wind blowing in a certain direction. We are part of these processes because we interact with everything around us. By laying concrete, building, driving, importing, etc…, we change everything around us. Everything on this planet interacts and that is nature.

When I have tried to express this before, it has been confusing for people so take an example: the block I live on. Once, it was full of trees, animals, maybe even people. Today, it is driveways, pavements, houses and people. In the intervening time, it was developed from one to the other but did it, during that time, cease to be a part of nature? It, and especially its development, still affect many things typically thought of as natural, like the air everyone breathes. For better or worse, it is an integral part of the ecosystem, including the people and animals that live in the houses, the trees on and around it and even how rainwater settles. So basically, we cannot separate ourselves from nature, only change nature to better suit our wants and needs.

The point here is not to warn about impending doom but to begin to create a new understanding of the world. We are the dominant species and are physically changing the world to better suit ourselves (admittedly, not everyone is but be quiet, I’m making a point here). While certain areas are freer from human development than others, our changes and the way we live alter the earth and her processes without separating us from them. Instead of thinking about nature as separate, we must begin to think of nature as everything, including ourselves and our constructs because that is the simple truth.