There is no nature
A thought on the human-nature dichotomy
There is no nature—there’s only this planet on which we all live.
🜃
When we talk about the human-nature relationship, nature becomes an accessory—nice to have but not essential for survival. But there is no nature. There isn’t a space where human life takes place that exists outside the ecosystem of this planet. Nature is not a walk in the forest. It is the air we breathe, the water flushing our toilets, the landfills piled with our garbage, the oceans swimming in our plastic, the rivers polluted with our chemicals, the animals starved by the cities we feed, the ice melted by the fossil fuels we burn.
Humans don’t exist in a vacuum. Everything that surrounds us is nature.
Nature is our home planet that we are supposed to share with countless other beings. Nature is our home planet that gave birth to our species and keeps it alive. Nature is our home planet and the only paradise humans will have ever known.
🜃
Cognitive Ecology is a philosophical notebook being written in public and collected in print at the end of 2026. You’re reading it as it takes shape. Start from the beginning here.
Thank you for reading,
Claudia Befu
I loved this Claudia. We need to reimagine how we live, but also the words we use to frame our lives.
One of the best wordings I've seen! Indeed, we have separated ourselves from the world around, so that "us" means humans, and nature is "the other", "them", or "it". This has to change.