Is it time to reassess our relationship with nature? | BBC Ideas

Earth, us… But, hang on, aren't we part of the Earth? We're organic creatures, made of the same molecules as everything else on our planet - one interconnected ecosystem that keeps us all alive. But are we superior? Different? Or special? Why do we so often feel, well, separate from the Earth? In fact, not everyone does.
地球，我们……但等等，我们不也是地球的一部分吗？我们是有机生物，由与地球上其他一切相同的分子构成——一个相互联系的生态系统，让我们都活着。但我们是优越的吗？不同的吗？还是特别的？为什么我们常常觉得自己与地球是分离的？事实上，并不是每个人都有这种感觉。

Throughout human history lots of cultures have viewed their relationship to the Earth in other ways. Many still do. Animism - the belief that spirit infuses objects, nature and the whole of existence - is a fundamental principle of many indigenous societies. In Taoism, cosmic energy - or life force - is everywhere and is constantly seeking harmony and balance between all things. Ancient Andean civilisations placed the spirit of Pachamama, or Mother Earth, at the very centre of their worldview. And, today, for many indigenous people of the world, like the U'wa tribe in Colombia, the Earth is not just the dust from which human beings are made, it's the spirit of their people and ancestors. It's their history. It is life itself.
纵观人类历史，许多文化都以其他方式看待它们与地球的关系。许多人至今仍如此。万物有灵论——认为精神贯穿于物体、自然和整个存在——是许多土著社会的基本原则。在道教中，宇宙能量——或者说生命力——无处不在，并且不断寻求万物之间的和谐与平衡。古老的安第斯文明将帕查玛玛或地球母亲的精神置于其世界观的中心。今天，对世界上许多土著人来说，比如哥伦比亚的乌瓦部落，地球不仅仅是人类的尘土，还是他们的人民和祖先的精神。它是他们的历史。它就是生命本身。

This isn't always an easy idea for people in today's Western societies to grasp. The Druids of Ancient Britain did grasp it - focusing their spiritual practices on a reverence and connection with nature. But when Christianity spread through Europe, animism was condemned as pagan and savage. European colonialism enforced these views around the globe, in places like the Americas and Australia - crushing the indigenous peoples and their nature wisdom.
对于当今西方社会的人们来说，这并不总是一个容易理解的想法。古代英国的德鲁伊教徒确实领会了这一点——他们将精神修行集中在对自然的尊敬和联系上。但是当基督教传遍欧洲时，万物有灵论被谴责为异教和野蛮。欧洲殖民主义在全球范围内强制推行这些观点，在美洲和澳大利亚等地，压制了土著人民及其自然智慧。

Since the birth of agriculture, humans had been manipulating the world around them, harnessing, dividing and selling its natural resources. But under colonization, the Earth became a place to be conquered, dominated, farmed, fished, plundered and mined, on a vast scale. Was there any scientific thinking behind our ever-increasing control over the natural world? 17th Century Europe thought so.
自农业诞生以来，人类一直在操纵周围的世界，利用、分割和出售其自然资源。但在殖民统治下，地球变成了一个被大规模征服、支配、耕种、捕鱼、掠夺和开采的地方。在我们对自然世界日益增长的控制背后，是否有任何科学思考？17 世纪的欧洲是这么认为的。

In fact thought was all the rage then, as French philosopher Rene Descartes, and other others, like Sir Isaac Newton, helped to kick off the Enlightenment - an era that prized reasoning, science and order. A new view of the world emerged - with human beings as the thinking, rational, masters, and nature as our unthinking, unfeeling servant. Standing apart from her, humans investigated nature's ultimate questions, dissecting her into smaller and smaller pieces. This brought us great power. And with great power, comes... You know the rest. The Anthropocene Age had begun - an epoch defined by one dominant species. Us.
事实上，思想在当时风靡一时，法国哲学家勒内·笛卡尔和艾萨克·牛顿爵士等人帮助开启了启蒙运动——一个崇尚推理、科学和秩序的时代。一种新的世界观出现了——人类是有思想、理性的主人，而大自然则是我们没有思想、没有感情的仆人。人类站在大自然之外，研究大自然的终极问题，将大自然切割成越来越小的碎片。这为我们带来了强大的力量。而伴随着强大力量而来的......其余的你都知道。人类世时代已经开始——一个由一个优势物种定义的时代。我们。

On a planet that is billions of years old, in just 500 years, much of the human race has come to see itself as the rulers and center of all life. Today, we are still trying to bend the planet's environment, processes and biodiversity to our will. Our vast, sprawling cities have pushed nature out of sight and out of mind. The world is attempting to meet the urgent challenge of climate change. But can anything fundamentally change while we still see ourselves as somehow separate from Earth?
在这个有着数十亿年历史的星球上，短短500年间，大部分人类已将自己视为所有生命的主宰和中心。今天，我们仍在试图让地球的环境、进程和生物多样性屈从于我们的意志。我们庞大的、蔓延的城市将大自然挤出了人们的视线和脑海。全世界都在努力应对气候变化这一紧迫挑战。但是，如果我们仍然把自己与地球割裂开来，还能从根本上改变什么吗？

There are signs of hope. Other voices are starting to be heard once again. Influenced by a resurgent indigenous view of Pachamama, Bolivia and Ecuador have passed laws granting all nature equal rights with humans. And in New Zealand, a Maori tribe has successfully fought to have their river - and ancestor - given the same legal rights as a person. In an interconnected world, can we humans find ways to truly reconnect to all life on the planet? A new era might start with one single idea. There is no Earth and us. We are one.
有希望的迹象。人们开始再次听到其他的声音。受复兴的帕查玛玛土著观点的影响，玻利维亚和厄瓜多尔通过了法律，赋予所有自然界与人类平等的权利。在新西兰，一个毛利部落成功地为他们的河流和祖先争取到了与人类同等的法律权利。在这个相互联系的世界里，我们人类能否找到真正与地球上所有生命重新建立联系的方法？一个新时代或许可以从一个想法开始。没有地球和我们。我们是一体的。


🌟 视频版和pdf见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】