Unconventional Environmental Connections

Topic: Environmental Policy
A number of widespread human activities which reflect human desires to connect with the natural world are commonly overlooked or even condemned by the mainstream environmental movement. These include, for example, the deep connections that people to develop with domestic animals -- dogs, cats, and horses, for example. There is also the role that gardening plays in the lives of people who have lost the agricultural connections which are so central to human history. Beyond this is the human drive to engage in adventurous activities with intense physical exertion. These activities resonate with our evolutionary history in ways which passive theme parks, movie theaters, and computer games can't hope to duplicate. Rather than pushing people away from such activities, environmentalists should be encouraging them.