Freeing Nature from Our Psychic Projections
Mountains, rivers, forests, and oceans may exist independently of human perception, but the term “nature” is merely a projection of the human psyche onto unsuspecting environments. What we’re looking at, what we’re walking through, what we’re sailing across, what we’re cutting down and exploiting depends on the mental filters and emotive associations used to create meaning. When we look across the valley from a rise we may see the geographic skin of deep time, a color palette that will inspire our next painting, a mountain bike track, the home to an endangered species of butterfly, hidden oil resources, a paradise, a dangerous swamp, lost childhood, national pride, a threat, a new start, redemption…the list goes on and on. "Nature” is potentially all these things at the same time and the projections take only an instant. It’s difficult to hear the natural world speak when our minds are shouting at it in this way, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try because it has so much ...