Without Nature

                                                         Photograph by Allen Leblanc


As we lose nature, we lose far more than nature.  We lose also ourselves.  The natural world is not just something we like: it is something we need.  We suffer deep pain and loss the more we distance ourselves from it.
We don't just need to save the world because it is our duty.  We don't just need to save the world because it is useful to us, in that it provides things like food, water and oxygen.  We need to save the world because, without it, we are people whose existence lacks meaning.  We need to save wildlife, because, without wildlife, we are less than ourselves.
Without nature, we become as orphans: like people who have never known the casual everyday miracles of affection, care and love.  We are people who don't know where we have come from: and so have little idea of where to go.  Without nature, we are lost souls!

         Taken from 'A Word from Simon Barnes' - RSPB Birds Magazine - Autumn 2006