Humans are not separate from nature. We are part of it.
Our cultures, economies, and social structures are deeply embedded in the biosphere – the living fabric of Earth that makes human life possible.
A new paper in Cell Reports Sustainability argues that treating humans and nature as separate is a serious barrier to building sustainable futures. The authors introduce three ways to understand how humans are embedded in nature:
• Compositional – we are made up of and shaped by the living world around us
• Relational – our actions transform nature, which in turn transforms us - ‼️
• Evolutionary – human and ecological change unfold together over time
Recognising this embeddedness can help science and policy better address sustainability challenges and move beyond the old divide between humans and nature.