Why Natural History Matters

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Thomas L. Fleischner

Thomas L. Fleischner ([email protected]) is a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at Prescott College, 220 Grove Avenue, Prescott, Arizona 86301 U.S.A., and founding President of the Natural History Network.

The world needs natural history now more children: we turn over stones, we crouch to than ever. Because natural history – which look at insects crawling past, we turn our I have defined as “a practice of intentional heads to listen to new sounds. Indeed, as focused attentiveness and receptivity to the we grow older we have to learn to not pay more-than-human world, guided by attention to our world. The advertising honesty and accuracy” (Fleischner 2001, industry and mass consumer culture 2005) – makes us better, more complete collude to encourage this shrinking of the human beings. This process of “careful, scope of our attention. But natural history patient … sympathetic observation” attentiveness is inherent in us, and it can be (Norment 2008) – paying attention to the reawakened readily. larger than human world – allows us to build better human societies, ones that are It is easy to forget what an anomalous time less destructive and dysfunctional. Natural we now live in. Natural history is the history helps us see the world, and thus oldest continuous human tradition. ourselves, more accurately. Moreover, it Throughout human history and encourages and inspires better stewardship “prehistory,” attentiveness to nature was so of the Earth. completely entwined with daily life and survival that it was never considered as a Natural history encourages our conscious, practice separate from life itself. respectful relationship with the rest of the world and affirms our sense of beauty and In modern life, though, most people have wonder. When we engage in this practice become distanced from the kind of direct of attentiveness, we reaffirm our interaction with other patterns and commitment to nurturing hope. processes of life, and other living beings, that was formerly taken for granted. We are all wired to do natural history. Simply put, there has never been a moment Human consciousness developed in natural in the story of human existence when history’s forge – our patterns of attention natural history was practiced so little were sharpened as we watched for danger (Fleischner 2011). and sought food (Shepard 1978). Practicing natural history is our natural What are the consequences of living in this inclination – a fundamental human bizarrely inattentive historical moment? capacity and birthright. Watch us as Why is the need for the expansive

The Journal of Natural History Education and Experience Fleischner www.jnhe.org Volume 5 (2011) 21 attentiveness of natural history especially hope, joy, and gratitude. Natural history dire today? tends to lead to an expanded sense of a naturalist’s own humanity (Fleischner The current gush of social dysfunctions – 2011). When shared, it promotes a sense of violence, depression, anxiety, alienation, human connection. Laughter and warm lack of health in so many ways – coincides hearts are often field marks of natural with the mass sacrifice of human history in action. interaction with nature, the greatest dearth of natural history in human history. We Let us not beat around the bush here: have come to see the world as a funhouse natural history makes us better, built of human mirrors, where we see only psychologically healthier people, who are ourselves and narcissistic distortions of capable of being better citizens. A society ourselves. comprised of naturalists – those who learn directly and broadly from more-than- By contrast, natural history engenders human nature – is less myopic and less humility and open-mindedness. It inclined to believe in the myth of human humanizes and grounds us by offering a dominance. The practice of natural history larger perspective on the world. Natural connects us to the particulars of place, history allows us – forces us – to see making the world less homogenous and ourselves in proportion to the much larger abstract, and more interesting. The fabric of the world, rather than as the engagement, affection, and sense of beginning and end of the world’s story. compassion that flows from attention to Ultimately, natural history expands our these particularities of place and organism sense of self into one of an ecological self promote an ethic of stewardship. (And it (Naess 1987) and helps us to clarify our must be said: natural history nurtures this ecological identity (Thomashow 1996), by tendency much more readily and naturally encouraging us to engage with nature – than does the austerity of ecological theory any place we can be in meaningful kinship and abstract conceptualizations.). with other species (Louv 2011). Taking care of the world, whether we call Aldo Leopold (1993) famously noted that a it conservation, stewardship, or sense of living “in a world of wounds” sustainability, depends on the accurate could accompany a growing ecological portraits of places, processes, and awareness. But this wounded world is also organisms provided by natural history. It comprised of tremendously resilient is impossible to devise an effective beauty. Natural history is the process by conservation plan for an endangered which we learn to see this beauty – the species that we know nothing about process by which we fall in love with the (indeed, we would not even know that world. My own observation over three species was endangered without carefully decades of teaching natural history is that natural history observations), or to it typically has a centering, uplifting effect prioritize habitats for protection if we do on people. not know their extent or what relationships they harbor. Among the attributes I have noticed in those who are attentive to nature are a By focusing our attention on particulars – greater sense of humility, affirmation, on actual plants and animals, on exact

The Journal of Natural History Education and Experience Fleischner www.jnhe.org Volume 5 (2011) 22 canyons and specific mountain slopes – careful observation and description of natural history provides us models of natural history. adaptation, resilience and ultimately, of sustainability. Adaptation to life in, for Bottom line: natural history makes us example, the Sonoran Desert by a vascular healthier as individuals and, collectively, plant gives humans a myriad of ideas as to as societies. It provides the foundation for how we, too, can conserve water and scientific inquiry, and for conservation. It withstand summer heat. Moreover, we honors the creation, and informs and will have trouble designing livable, promotes sustainability practices. And, sustainable cities without paying attention not least, it is a whole lot of fun. to natural history specifics of place: When does the rain fall? How do native plants Acknowledgments adapt to desert drought? What are the shifting seasonal patterns of shade and My gratitude to my colleagues and fellow sunlight? Natural history quite literally participants in “The Natural History grounds us. Initiative: From Decline to Rebirth,” especially to Laura Sewall and Saul Natural history also helps us to see the Weisberg for helpful critique of these world accurately. Careful observation and ideas. description – the cornerstones of natural history – are the basis of all good science. References Empirical observations provide the framework upon which integrative theories Fleischner, T.L. 2001. Natural history and can be draped. Theories are only as the spiral of offering. Wild Earth 11(3/4) valuable as the natural history observations [Fall/Winter]: 10-13. on which they are based. As Charles Darwin once wrote in a letter to a friend, Fleischner, T.L. 2005. Natural history and “accuracy is the soul of natural history.” the deep roots of resource management. Natural Resources Journal 45: 1-13. Accurate natural history undergirds all theoretical advances in understanding the Fleischner, T.L. 2011. The mindfulness world. Wallace and Darwin explored of natural history. Pages 3-15 in T.L. archipelagos, described the patterns of Fleischner, ed. The Way of Natural variation they observed, and the world was History. Trinity University Press. forever changed by the theory of evolution through natural selection. Entomologists Leopold, A. 1993. Round River. Oxford crawling on hands and knees, tracking University Press. movements of ants, ponder theories of sociobiology. Geologists, sweating in Louv, R. 2011. The Nature Principle. dusty desert mountains, tracking fault lines Algonquin Books. and stratigraphies, contribute to a unified theory of plate tectonics. And geneticists, Naess, A. 1987. Self-realization: an peering through microscopes, unravel the ecological approach to being in the world. human genome. Every worthy science The Trumpeter 4(3): 35-42. arises from a sturdy foundation in the

The Journal of Natural History Education and Experience Fleischner www.jnhe.org Volume 5 (2011) 23 Norment, C. 2008. Return to Warden’s Grove: Science, Desire, and the Lives of Thomashow, M. 1996. Ecological Sparrows. University of Iowa Press. Identity: Becoming a Reflective Environmentalist. MIT Press. Shepard, P. 1978. Thinking Animals: Animals and the Development of Human Copyright 2011, the author and the Natural Intelligence. Viking Press. [reprinted History Network 1998, University of Georgia Press]

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