what is our place in nature essay

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I.  Introduction

Earth as we know it is an incredibly complex and fragile network of interconnected systems that have developed slowly over the last 4.5 billion years or so.  From the ashes of the Big Bang this planet emerged as a mass of energy and elements.  From that newly born mass of energy and elements evolved structured, dynamic systems of solids, liquids, and gases.  The evolution of this planet continued to unfold over billions of years in such a unique way that eventually conditions arose with the ability to foster life.

From the smallest microorganisms to the largest animals, all life on Earth has a common ancestor.  Everything is connected to everything.  So how is it that our species has come to dominate the landscape in such a short period of time?  Furthermore, what gives us the right to do so?  In 3.5 billion years of life on Earth everything has followed a natural course of evolution.  However, our rapid success as a species has begun to affect this natural order.  With our population at seven billion and climbing, we have played a tremendous role in the disruption of the Earth’s natural systems.  As we continue to grow and have a greater impact on the Earth’s systems, it is imperative that we address our role and relationship with nature.

The ability of humans to manipulate the landscape and recognize the consequences of doing so puts us in a peculiar position.  As a species we are assigned the duty to provide and proliferate.  Our goal is to achieve stability for ourselves and our kin.  However we also have an obligation to maintain the environment, as we depend on the resources and services it provides.  The question then becomes: what is our role in nature?  Do we have the right to manipulate the land, factory farm animals, and pollute waterways?  Or do we have an obligation to reduce our numbers and merely subsist?  In order to answer these questions we must rely on our knowledge of Earth, evolution, and our influence on the environment.

II.  History

Our relationship with nature has historically been one of imbalance and overuse.  Nearly every step in human history has unfortunately been accompanied with a leap in environmental degradation.  At first, humans were incredibly in-tune with their surroundings.  Nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes used to roam the lands, following the ebb and flow of the seasons.  These tribes had a measurable impact on the environment, but their influence was relatively manageable due to their population size.  With advancements in technology and agriculture though, humans began to find more efficient ways of sustaining themselves.  These advancements allowed for more permanent settlements, which led to rapid population growth and a distancing from nature.

As society evolved, populations grew and more and more resources were required to fuel the expansion.  With breakthroughs in agriculture, settlements became more permanent and cities began to take shape.  This shift to city life inadvertently led to a distancing from nature.  While many people were still in-tune with nature on a subsistent level, the need for more and more resources began to change our regard for nature.

Although our distancing from nature began several thousand years ago with advancements in agriculture and social order, it is the age of industry to which we owe our modern regard for nature.  The growth of cities allowed for a separation between people and nature and our obsession with convenience and efficiency beckoned a new perspective on the environment.  With technological advancements, nature became something we were no longer apart of and entirely subject to, but something that we could control and profit off of.  The growth of industry enabled humans to truly dominate the landscape and disrupt the natural systems that have been in place for billions of years.

As we have removed ourselves further and further from nature, we have developed a willing ignorance of our role and relationship within it.  With the growth of cities and trade we have moved from a subsistent, sustainable economy to one of greed and exploitation.  Humans have always had an impact on the environment, but with the age of industry that impact has been ultra-magnified.  Population growth has been exponentiated, cities have become the primary place of residence, and the majority of the world is now out of touch with the workings of nature.

Although every species plays a unique role in the biosphere and inherently has its own impact, not every species has the cognitive ability to measure their influence or the capacity to change it.  Humans are unique in that respect, which is the root of the problem.  We are capable of understanding our influence over nature, but we tend to ignore the Earth’s reaction to our presence.  I am not arguing that we purposefully degrade nature, but that environmental degradation is an inherent trait of our population’s perpetual progression.  We know we are crippling the environment.  We have the ability to do something about it.  Therefore, we should make change where change is necessary.

III.  Economy

The size of our population and its incessant desire to expand has an obvious impact on the environment.  However, that impact is magnified with the demands of industry and capitalism.  In his book, Regarding Nature , Andrew McLaughlin identifies industrialism and the capitalist mindset as being especially influential on our regard for nature: “The economic systems that we construct and live within are, I suggest, the primary immediate causes of our relations between society and the rest of nature” (Regarding Nature, P. 12).  Further causing a perceived division from nature is the economic structure we have allowed to infect most of the world.

Capitalism is an especially destructive force in our regard for nature as it encourages a monetary-driven social hierarchy based on the encroaching exploitation of our world’s resources.  Our relationship with nature has now become purely economic.  We do not associate ourselves as a part of nature because we use it for profit.  Forests are cut down for the profits of the lumber industry and to make room for livestock.  Animals that we are undoubtedly related to, that have senses and the ability to socialize are slaughtered by the billions to feed an increasingly carnivorous population.  Resources such as oil and food are all unevenly distributed throughout the world and therefore used as a platform for profit.  All the while the environment bears the grunt of our greed.

We not only encourage a division amongst ourselves through the commoditization of the world’s resources, we encourage a division between man and nature.  In order to reconstruct our views of nature and understand our place within it, it is important to reconsider our relationship with each other and our surroundings.  As Aldo Leopold puts it, man “…has not learned to think like a mountain” ( A Sand County Almanac, P. 11).  We have to consider ourselves as part of a bigger picture.  Industry and capitalism rely heavily on ignorance and individualism.  However, the reality is that we are all dependent upon each other in one way or another.

IV.  Time for Change

Humans play a vital role in nature just like everything else.  What separates us from nature though, is the ability to understand our place within it.  This cognitive capacity of ours has historically been the cause of a perceived division between man and nature.  However, in order to achieve a sustainable future in which humans assume a more natural role and have less of an impact it is imperative that we reconsider our role and relationship with nature.  A change in the way we regard nature has obvious political, economic, and social repercussions, but our cognitive ability obliges us to reevaluate our position in the world rather than continue to degrade it.

There are a number of ways in which we can begin to reconsider our relationship with nature, but all of which require an enormous effort.  Through a universal education curriculum, it is possible to encourage people everywhere to consider themselves as part of a larger picture.  By teaching people about the environment, evolution, and ecology, we can provide them with the tools for change.  Lewis Mumford imagined a social revolution brought about by a change in values through educational reform: “The humanizing of technology and the protection of diversity were both contingent on a fundamental change in values” ( Minding Nature , P.219).  In order to bring about necessary change it is critical that people take action.  Through a universal environmental education program it is possible to galvanize people into forming new ideas and opinions of the world and to understand their place within it.

A universal education program would go a long way in encouraging change in how we view each other and our environment.  Changing attitudes are a primary component in achieving a sustainable future – one in which nature is allowed to run its course without human intervention.  Gregg Easterbrook discusses a similar future in his The Ecorealist Manifesto : “…the long-term purview of nature might be combined with the short-term insights of the genus Homo in ways that allow people, machines, and nature to work together for each other’s mutual benefit” ( The Ecorealist Manifesto, P. 1).  In order for the Earth to retain its balance, it is important that we not overstep our bounds as a species.  This requires a universal effort to reevaluate our relationship with nature and make adjustments as needed.

V.  Conclusion

After thousands of years of societal evolution, we find ourselves at the peak of technology and pollution.  We are already seeing the effects of our industrial ways through the extinction of species, the melting of glaciers, and the destruction of the landscape.  As we continue to disturb the world’s natural systems we are recognizing a rippling of consequences.  Our recognition of these effects suggests that our role in nature is far more influential than it should be.  Therefore it is necessary that we make major changes and that we make them soon.

Our role within nature should be one of subsistence rather than commercialization.  We have exploited the world for too long and the consequences of doing so are everywhere.  As everything is related to everything, we have no right to infringe on the livelihood of any other species.  In fact, our cognitive ability and understanding of nature obliges us to maintain the integrity of the environment.  So we must change how we influence the land.  We must respect the natural order of things and find a way to live accordingly.

Although a change in attitudes would require a complete overhaul of our current economic and political structures, it is something that must be done.  As history shows, if we continue to encourage expansion and development it is very likely that we will see major effects in climate and ecology.  We have seen the destructive nature of industrialism and capitalism.  We can predict and measure the effects of our actions on the environment.  We know we are headed in the wrong direction and we are expecting major consequences.  So why don’t we do something about it?

VI.  References

• McLaughlin, Andrew. Regarding Nature: Industrialism and Deep Ecology . Albany: State University of New York, 1993. Print.
• Leopold, Aldo, Charles Walsh Schwartz, and Aldo Leopold. A Sand County Almanac. With Other Essays on Conservation from Round River . New York: Oxford UP, 1966. Print.
• Macauley, David. Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology . New York: Guilford, 1996. Print.
• Easterbrook, Gregg. “The Ecorealist Manifesto.” The Atlantic . Atlantic Media Company, 1995. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

183 thoughts on “ Our Role and Relationship With Nature ”

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Defining Our Place in Nature

Zeray Alemseged, PhD Research Associate

Fossils as Reminders

Paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged is on a never-ending search for the roots of humanity. While exploring his home country of Ethiopia, Alemseged and his team discovered “Selam,” a remarkably complete fossilized skeleton of a 3.3 million-year old Australopithecus afarensis child. Selam provides a wealth of information about our early hominin ancestors—what they looked like, how they aged and behaved—clues Alemseged says are critical to tracing the evolutionary path followed by humanity and deciphering the forces responsible for making modern humans who we are today.

“Time and time again, the fossil record reminds us that we are part of an ever-changing world,” says Alemseged. “My work explores the dynamic between changing environmental landscapes and changes in our own species. As we change the planet at a never-before-seen pace, we’re not simply altering global biodiversity—we are sparking changes in our own biology. Studying our ancestors allows us to reflect upon who we are today, how we got here, and how we impact our non-human relatives.

Tools: Agents of Change

Nothing has changed the global environment more dramatically than the advent of tools. In 2010, an international team of scientists led by Alemseged discovered evidence in the Afar region of Ethiopia that A. afarensis was using stone tools and eating meat roughly 3.4 million years ago, pushing the timeframe of human tool use back by nearly one million years. This discovery has helped fill gaps in our understanding of evolution and humans’ peerless ability to modify landscapes.

“Tool use fundamentally altered the way in which our early ancestors interacted with nature, allowing them to eat new types of food and exploit new territories,” says Alemseged. “It also led to tool making—a critical step in our evolutionary path that eventually enabled advanced technologies such as airplanes, MRI machines, and iPhones.”

Forming our Future Legacy

As a scientist at a public institution, Alemseged discusses a global ebb and flow—the cyclical changes between early humans and the natural world—to emphasize the importance of understanding our place in nature today. At the heart of his discussions with reporters, fellow scientists, Academy visitors, and world leaders is a call-to-action to create a more sustainable future.

“As part of the animal kingdom, we must raise our children to feel a connection with our past, our present actions, and the rest of the world,” says Alemseged. “Can we do better than our primitive ancestors? We have a stake in sustaining and protecting our community of plants and animals—the global community we’re a part of—for millennia to come.”

Academy Research Associate Department: Anthropology  Expeditions: 40 Current Expedition: Afar Depression, Ethiopia

Profile Videos: The “Most Curious” Species Dikika: Remote, Hostile, and Hot Evolution of Diet Our Role in Biodiversity

Related Websites: Dikika Research Project  

Related Content:  Human Tool Use , Science Today What Makes Us Human? ,  PBS Becoming Human ,  PBS African Voices ,  CNN The Search for Humanity's Roots ,  TED Talk

A Summary and Analysis of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘Nature’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Nature’ is an 1836 essay by the American writer and thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82). In this essay, Emerson explores the relationship between nature and humankind, arguing that if we approach nature with a poet’s eye, and a pure spirit, we will find the wonders of nature revealed to us.

You can read ‘Nature’ in full here . Below, we summarise Emerson’s argument and offer an analysis of its meaning and context.

Emerson begins his essay by defining nature, in philosophical terms, as anything that is not our individual souls. So our bodies, as well as all of the natural world, but also all of the world of art and technology, too, are ‘nature’ in this philosophical sense of the world. He urges his readers not to rely on tradition or history to help them to understand the world: instead, they should look to nature and the world around them.

In the first chapter, Emerson argues that nature is never ‘used up’ when the right mind examines it: it is a source of boundless curiosity. No man can own the landscape: it belongs, if it belongs to anyone at all, to ‘the poet’. Emerson argues that when a man returns to nature he can rediscover his lost youth, that wide-eyed innocence he had when he went among nature as a boy.

Emerson states that when he goes among nature, he becomes a ‘transparent eyeball’ because he sees nature but is himself nothing: he has been absorbed or subsumed into nature and, because God made nature, God himself. He feels a deep kinship and communion with all of nature. He acknowledges that our view of nature depends on our own mood, and that the natural world reflects the mood we are feeling at the time.

In the second chapter, Emerson focuses on ‘commodity’: the name he gives to all of the advantages which our senses owe to nature. Emerson draws a parallel with the ‘useful arts’ which have built houses and steamships and whole towns: these are the man-made equivalents of the natural world, in that both nature and the ‘arts’ are designed to provide benefit and use to mankind.

The third chapter then turns to ‘beauty’, and the beauty of nature comprises several aspects, which Emerson outlines. First, the beauty of nature is a restorative : seeing the sky when we emerge from a day’s work can restore us to ourselves and make us happy again. The human eye is the best ‘artist’ because it perceives and appreciates this beauty so keenly. Even the countryside in winter possesses its own beauty.

The second aspect of beauty Emerson considers is the spiritual element. Great actions in history are often accompanied by a beautiful backdrop provided by nature. The third aspect in which nature should be viewed is its value to the human intellect . Nature can help to inspire people to create and invent new things. Everything in nature is a representation of a universal harmony and perfection, something greater than itself.

In his fourth chapter, Emerson considers the relationship between nature and language. Our language is often a reflection of some natural state: for instance, the word right literally means ‘straight’, while wrong originally denoted something ‘twisted’. But we also turn to nature when we wish to use language to reflect a ‘spiritual fact’: for example, that a lamb symbolises innocence, or a fox represents cunning. Language represents nature, therefore, and nature in turn represents some spiritual truth.

Emerson argues that ‘the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.’ Many great principles of the physical world are also ethical or moral axioms: for example, ‘the whole is greater than its part’.

In the fifth chapter, Emerson turns his attention to nature as a discipline . Its order can teach us spiritual and moral truths, but it also puts itself at the service of mankind, who can distinguish and separate (for instance, using water for drinking but wool for weaving, and so on). There is a unity in nature which means that every part of it corresponds to all of the other parts, much as an individual art – such as architecture – is related to the others, such as music or religion.

The sixth chapter is devoted to idealism . How can we sure nature does actually exist, and is not a mere product within ‘the apocalypse of the mind’, as Emerson puts it? He believes it doesn’t make any practical difference either way (but for his part, Emerson states that he believes God ‘never jests with us’, so nature almost certainly does have an external existence and reality).

Indeed, we can determine that we are separate from nature by changing out perspective in relation to it: for example, by bending down and looking between our legs, observing the landscape upside down rather than the way we usually view it. Emerson quotes from Shakespeare to illustrate how poets can draw upon nature to create symbols which reflect the emotions of the human soul. Religion and ethics, by contrast, degrade nature by viewing it as lesser than divine or moral truth.

Next, in the seventh chapter, Emerson considers nature and the spirit . Spirit, specifically the spirit of God, is present throughout nature. In his eighth and final chapter, ‘Prospects’, Emerson argues that we need to contemplate nature as a whole entity, arguing that ‘a dream may let us deeper into the secret of nature than a hundred concerted experiments’ which focus on more local details within nature.

Emerson concludes by arguing that in order to detect the unity and perfection within nature, we must first perfect our souls. ‘He cannot be a naturalist until he satisfies all the demands of the spirit’, Emerson urges. Wisdom means finding the miraculous within the common or everyday. He then urges the reader to build their own world, using their spirit as the foundation. Then the beauty of nature will reveal itself to us.

In a number of respects, Ralph Waldo Emerson puts forward a radically new attitude towards our relationship with nature. For example, although we may consider language to be man-made and artificial, Emerson demonstrates that the words and phrases we use to describe the world are drawn from our observation of nature. Nature and the human spirit are closely related, for Emerson, because they are both part of ‘the same spirit’: namely, God. Although we are separate from nature – or rather, our souls are separate from nature, as his prefatory remarks make clear – we can rediscover the common kinship between us and the world.

Emerson wrote ‘Nature’ in 1836, not long after Romanticism became an important literary, artistic, and philosophical movement in Europe and the United States. Like Wordsworth and the Romantics before him, Emerson argues that children have a better understanding of nature than adults, and when a man returns to nature he can rediscover his lost youth, that wide-eyed innocence he had when he went among nature as a boy.

And like Wordsworth, Emerson argued that to understand the world, we should go out there and engage with it ourselves, rather than relying on books and tradition to tell us what to think about it. In this connection, one could undertake a comparative analysis of Emerson’s ‘Nature’ and Wordsworth’s pair of poems ‘ Expostulation and Reply ’ and ‘ The Tables Turned ’, the former of which begins with a schoolteacher rebuking Wordsworth for sitting among nature rather than having his nose buried in a book:

‘Why, William, on that old gray stone, ‘Thus for the length of half a day, ‘Why, William, sit you thus alone, ‘And dream your time away?

‘Where are your books?—that light bequeathed ‘To beings else forlorn and blind! ‘Up! up! and drink the spirit breathed ‘From dead men to their kind.

Similarly, for Emerson, the poet and the dreamer can get closer to the true meaning of nature than scientists because they can grasp its unity by viewing it holistically, rather than focusing on analysing its rock formations or other more local details. All of this is in keeping with the philosophy of Transcendentalism , that nineteenth-century movement which argued for a kind of spiritual thinking instead of scientific thinking based narrowly on material things.

Emerson, along with Henry David Thoreau, was the most famous writer to belong to the Transcendentalist movement, and ‘Nature’ is fundamentally a Transcendentalist essay, arguing for an intuitive and ‘poetic’ engagement with nature in the round rather than a coldly scientific or empirical analysis of its component parts.

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The Presence of Nature pp 16–37 Cite as

Our Place in Nature

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As we saw in the Introduction, the term ‘nature’ has several meanings. According to a long-standing tradition, it denotes the part of reality that is material rather than soul- or mind-like, res extensa as opposed to res cogitans . On this dualistic conception, human beings are thought to be partly natural (on account of their having bodies) and partly non-natural (on account of their having souls or minds). So although a man has a certain size, shape and mass, he is thought also to possess a radically non-natural part, a soul or a mind.

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Our Place in Nature: A History of Ideas

I developed this course a long time ago, when I had a sabbatical replacement position at a small liberal arts college. The trajectory of my teaching career has meant that I've never had a chance to teach it again, so the documents here are in their unrevised, 20+-year-old form. That said, I think that the course -- part intellectual history, part history of scientific ideas, part STS -- is an interesting concept. Someday, I hope to revisit and update it.

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Nature Essay for Students and Children

500+ words nature essay.

Nature is an important and integral part of mankind. It is one of the greatest blessings for human life; however, nowadays humans fail to recognize it as one. Nature has been an inspiration for numerous poets, writers, artists and more of yesteryears. This remarkable creation inspired them to write poems and stories in the glory of it. They truly valued nature which reflects in their works even today. Essentially, nature is everything we are surrounded by like the water we drink, the air we breathe, the sun we soak in, the birds we hear chirping, the moon we gaze at and more. Above all, it is rich and vibrant and consists of both living and non-living things. Therefore, people of the modern age should also learn something from people of yesteryear and start valuing nature before it gets too late.

Significance of Nature

Nature has been in existence long before humans and ever since it has taken care of mankind and nourished it forever. In other words, it offers us a protective layer which guards us against all kinds of damages and harms. Survival of mankind without nature is impossible and humans need to understand that.

If nature has the ability to protect us, it is also powerful enough to destroy the entire mankind. Every form of nature, for instance, the plants , animals , rivers, mountains, moon, and more holds equal significance for us. Absence of one element is enough to cause a catastrophe in the functioning of human life.

We fulfill our healthy lifestyle by eating and drinking healthy, which nature gives us. Similarly, it provides us with water and food that enables us to do so. Rainfall and sunshine, the two most important elements to survive are derived from nature itself.

Further, the air we breathe and the wood we use for various purposes are a gift of nature only. But, with technological advancements, people are not paying attention to nature. The need to conserve and balance the natural assets is rising day by day which requires immediate attention.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conservation of Nature

In order to conserve nature, we must take drastic steps right away to prevent any further damage. The most important step is to prevent deforestation at all levels. Cutting down of trees has serious consequences in different spheres. It can cause soil erosion easily and also bring a decline in rainfall on a major level.

Polluting ocean water must be strictly prohibited by all industries straightaway as it causes a lot of water shortage. The excessive use of automobiles, AC’s and ovens emit a lot of Chlorofluorocarbons’ which depletes the ozone layer. This, in turn, causes global warming which causes thermal expansion and melting of glaciers.

Therefore, we should avoid personal use of the vehicle when we can, switch to public transport and carpooling. We must invest in solar energy giving a chance for the natural resources to replenish.

In conclusion, nature has a powerful transformative power which is responsible for the functioning of life on earth. It is essential for mankind to flourish so it is our duty to conserve it for our future generations. We must stop the selfish activities and try our best to preserve the natural resources so life can forever be nourished on earth.

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Essay About the Beauty of Nature: 4 Examples and 9 Prompts

Read this article for essay examples and prompts to use so you can start writing essay about the beauty of nature.

Nature is complex and beautiful. Our ecosystem covers every aspect of Mother Earth, including the evolution of the earth & life, the various cycles, all the living things, and more. Collectively, they create something so beautiful and perfect that it can be hard to believe it exists. 

The beauty and power of nature can be pretty overwhelming. Whenever you want to feel these emotions, reading or writing essays about the beauty of nature can help you grasp those ideas. 

Below are examples of essays on nature and its beauty and prompts to help you get started on your next essay.

1. Essay on Beauty of Nature for Children and Students on Study Mentor

2. descriptive essay on beauty of nature on performdigi, 3. essay on beauties of nature by gk scientist, 4. descriptive essay on mother nature by neetu singh, 1. activities that appreciate nature, 2. the beauty of nature in renaissance art, 3. mindful methods of appreciating the beauty of nature, 4. literature pieces that define the beauty of nature well, 5. video games that captured the beauty of nature, 6. beautiful nature photo ideas and tips you can do with a phone, 7. difference between nature and science, 8. philosophical understanding of nature, 9. biomimicry: nature-inspired engineering.

“Each and everything in nature, including living or non-living organisms, play an important role in maintaining the balance to create a viable environment for all of us, which is called ecological balance. We need to make sure that the ecological balance should be maintained at all times to avoid a catastrophic situation in the future.”

The first essay discusses nature’s significance, the natural resources, and how to conserve them. It has an educational tone, encouraging the reader to care for nature and protect its beauty. The second essay focuses on the non-harmful ways of enjoying nature and protecting it from modern daily processes. You might also like these authors like Wendell Berry .

“Nature has many faces. They are everywhere. The human eye is always in contact with good things.”

This descriptive essay about the beauty of nature discusses the immortal, infinite, and eternal beauty of nature and nature as a reflection of the art of Allah. It covers the beauty of everything found in nature, including the changing seasons, birds, beasts, fish, reptiles, humans, the environment, and more.

“To enjoy these beauties of nature, one has to live in nature’s company. A countryman enjoys nature well. A town dweller cannot enjoy the beauties of nature.”

This essay on nature talks about nature and personifies it as a woman by using the pronouns she and her. The essay considers the various elements in nature, seasons, and unique environments. It also provides some wisdom to encourage the reader to care for nature.You might also be interested in these articles about the beauty of nature .

“As nature is the main life force of all living beings on earth. It is our duty to preserve and protect nature and all its creations alike. We must also love her in return as she loves us.”

In this essay, nature is God’s most tremendous boon to humanity. Thus, we must protect it from corruption, pollution, and other artificial and harmful manufactured things. The essay also gave examples of environmental problems that have impacted nature significantly. The end of the essay states that we must stand, preserve, and protect nature.

9 Prompts for Writing an Essay About the Beauty of Nature

Writing an essay about the beauty of nature can feel repetitive and overdone. You can avoid repeating the usual themes or ideas you saw above. Instead, use the essay prompts on nature below.

Here’s a tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead.

Do you want other people to enjoy and appreciate nature? With this essay, you can list the various methods of appreciating nature. The activities can be simple such as planting a tree, hugging a tree, and watching sunsets.

For help with this topic, read this guide explaining what persuasive writing is all about.

Renaissance art is rich with meanings and symbolism portrayed through nature. For example, although flowers universally stand for beauty, different flower types can have different meanings. Dark clouds and streaks of lightning in the skies can portray dark moods or omens. Many renaissance male artists saw nature as a mother, mistress, or bride. If you like interpreting renaissance art, you’ll enjoy this essay topic.

Mindfulness and nature share a very positive relationship. Being in nature can make you more mindful. Being mindful while in nature enhances your connectedness to it. This essay focuses on mindfulness in nature.

 Consider your connection to it, be aware of your surroundings, and actively appreciate its various parts. Connecting to nature will open you to change, the natural cycle of life and death, and more.

Literature is more flexible than visual art because it taps the imagination through ideas and concepts rather than images. For example, various poets, writers, and playwrights have likened the beauty of nature to love, characters, powerful forces, and intense emotions. 

Avid literature readers will enjoy writing about the beauty of nature through their favorite authors, themes, and stories.

No matter what their genre, more video games today feature realistic graphics. One of the best ways to show off these high-tech graphics is by showing nature’s beauty in a scene or environment. 

Some examples of the top video games that have captured the beauty of nature include Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption II, and The Last of Us: Part Two. Write about how the beauty of nature can be captured in a video game and the methods used to create vivid digital worlds.

Are you an enthusiast of nature photography and amateur photography? Bring these two things together by writing an essay about taking nature photos with a phone. Write what you learned about taking nature photos. 

You can also provide sample nature photos you or others took with a smartphone. Remember, nature photography can cover many subjects, like animals, plants, landscapes, etc.

Have you ever stopped to think about the difference between nature and science? Science has many methodical and measurable aspects and is as young as humanity. The opposite is true for nature because it has existed far longer than humans have. Yet, we can use science to study nature. 

When you pick this essay idea, discuss the loose ideas mentioned above in more detail. Researching and reading about nature vs. science can also help. Discuss this in your next essay for an inspiring and intriguing essay topic.

Philosopher students will enjoy writing an essay about the beauty of nature. You can argue that nature does not exist because it is not measurable. It doesn’t exist outside of any solid examples we can give, like the environment, animals, weather, and plants. 

You write about the philosophical aspects of nature and use key research to back up your ideas and arguments made in the essay. Look for scientific research papers, books by philosophers, and opinion essays to create this essay.

Biomimicry is a sustainable solution to human challenges. It imitates the designs found in nature’s time-tested strategies and patterns and incorporates them into technology. 

This is a fascinating essay topic that can inspire your next written piece. Conduct research into biomimicry, and let the reader know your thoughts and opinions on this subject.

 Do you need more inspiration? Read these 13 essays about nature .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Environment

The human place in nature, do humans really have their place in nature.

Posted July 3, 2020

Do humans exist outside the natural world? How is that possible if all species arose from the same process of evolution by natural selection?

There have been many advocates for this human uniqueness view within the social scientists. One oft-repeated claim is that humans are so much smarter than all other animals that there is no reasonable comparison. What of the evidence?

Evidence for Human Cognitive Superiority

There is no unbiased method of comparing general intelligence across species. Researchers focus on specific cognitive abilities instead. Are there specific cognitive abilities that only humans master?

Perhaps. Humans are good at mathematical skills and count better than other species. Chimpanzees have difficulty handling quantities greater than five. This might appear to be a defining difference. Yet, some human societies, in Amazonia, cannot count either, having no words for numbers greater than three .

What about language itself? Early experiments with common chimpanzees did not find much evidence of the capacity to master sign language. Bonobos produced much better results and Kanzi, a young male spontaneously mastered communication using a computer to construct sentences by pressing keys on a screen while sitting in on his mother's training sessions.

Chimpanzees are self-aware and can recognize themselves in mirrors. The test was also passed by magpies, as well as hump-backed whales, and dolphins (1).

If you have ever mislaid your keys, you know how annoying this can be. Humans have weak spatial memory compared to other species. Clark's nutcracker caches seeds in thousands of locations but remembers where they all are and can feed from them when food is scarce.

Common chimpanzees are also much better than humans at remembering a sequence of numbers from 1 to 9 flashed quickly at random locations on a screen. Even with training, humans are not as good at accurately typing the numerals in the correct sequence (2).

So, human cognitive abilities are in the same range as those of other animals, sometimes a bit better, sometimes a lot worse (3).

Of course, humans are capable of a lot more than the individual can do and we function in complex societies unlike those of other primates.

Evidence for Cultural Uniqueness

Apologists for human uniqueness point out we are distinguished by the shared body of information we carry forward from generation to generation permitting sophisticated language communication, complex technologies, and legal and political systems that help our societies to flourish (4).

Inherited knowledge about what to eat, what to fear , and how to behave is not peculiar to our species, of course. All animals with backbones are capable of social learning (5).

Rodents learn what is good to eat by observing the dietary habits of their mothers that can vary markedly from one population to another. Similarly, prey animals, such as moose, do not come into the world with a deep fear of their arch predators—wolf packs—but must acquire that knowledge from their mothers. So moose living in wolf-free territories had lost all fear of the predators when these were reintroduced (6).

In literate societies, a great deal of information about technology, government, and the arts was propagated in books. It is currently being encoded in electronic forms at an unprecedented rate.

This is irrelevant to preliterate societies who were just as human as we are.

When one looks at human societies of a million years ago, it is easier to accept that they derived from primate ancestors whose subsistence practices were not so very different, and who had minimal impact on their habitat.

The important point is that our species was no more, or less, than another evolved species on the planet.

If that is true, why should anyone care?

What Difference Does It Make?

If humans are products of the same process of evolution by natural selection as other species, then we must think of ourselves as part of the natural world.

If we dispensed with the notion of humans as the pinnacle of creation, we are likely to have greater respect for the rest of nature and do more to defend the ecosystems upon which we all depend.

From a scientific perspective, we would dispense with human-centric explanations for our own activities and stick to the explanatory frameworks that work for other species.

This argument cuts in two directions. On the one side, we would credit other complex animals as being more capable of individual and social learning that permits them to adjust to their contemporary situation much as we do.

They would no longer be dismissed as mere biological stimulus-response machines that are genetically programmed to survive and reproduce but thought of as sentient beings equivalent to ourselves (7).

On the other side, human-centric thinking may help us to feel good about ourselves as an exceptional primate species but has little scientific justification and can only hinder the advancement of knowledge.

1 Prior, H., Schwarz, A.,and Gunturkun, O. (2008). Mirror-Induced Behavior in the Magpie (Pica pica). PLOS Biology 6 (8), e202, https://doi.org/10.1371/journals.pbio.0060202 .

2 Inoue, S., and Matsuzawa, T. (2007). Working Memory of Numerals in Chimpanzees. Current Biology, 17, R1004-R1005.

3 de Waal, F. (2016). Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are. New York: W. W. Norton.

4 Henrich, J. (2015). The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution domesticating our species and making us smarter. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

5 Richerson, P. J., and Boyd, R. (2004). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

6 Berger, J., Swenson, J. E., & Persson, I. L. (2001). Recolonizing carnivores and naïve prey: Conservation lessons from Pleistocene extinctions. Science, 291, 1036-1039.

7 Barber, N. (2020). Evolution in the here and now: How adaptation and social learning explain humanity. Guilford, CT.:Prometheus/Rowman and Littlefield.

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Here-Now-Adaptation-Learning/dp/163388…

Nigel Barber, Ph.D., is an evolutionary psychologist as well as the author of Why Parents Matter and The Science of Romance , among other books.

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The Beauty About The Nature

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

The Stars Awaken a Certain Reverence, Because Though Always Present, They Are Inaccessible;

but all natural objects make a kindred impression when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood. When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet . The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet . This is the best part of these men's farms, yet to this, their warranty deeds give no title. To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.

The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other;

who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight.

Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith.

There I feel that nothing can befall me in life,

— no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, — master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.

The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable.

I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.

Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. For, nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.

Chapter I from Nature , published as part of Nature; Addresses and Lectures

What Is The Meaning Behind Nature, The Poem?

Emerson often referred to nature as the "Universal Being" in his many lectures. It was Emerson who deeply believed there was a spiritual sense of the natural world which felt was all around him.

Going deeper still in this discussion of the "Universal Being", Emerson writes, "The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship."

It's common sense that "nature" is everything you see that is NOT man-made, or changed by man (trees, foliage, mountains, etc.), but Emerson reminds us that nature was set forth to serve man. This is the essence of human will, for man to harness nature. Every object in nature has its own beauty. Therefore, Emerson advocates to view nature as a reality by building your own world and surrounding yourself with natural beauty.

• The purpose of science is to find the theory of nature.
• Nature wears the colors of the Spirit.
• A man is fed, not to fill his belly, but so he may work.
• Each natural action is graceful.

"Material objects are necessarily kinds of scoriae of the substantial thoughts of the Creator, which must always preserve an exact relation to their first origin; in other words, visible nature must have a spiritual and moral side."

This quote is cited in numerous works and it is attributed to a "French philosopher." However, no name can be found in association with this quote.

What is the main point of Nature, by Emerson?

The central theme of Emerson's famous essay "Nature" is the harmony that exists between the natural world and human beings. In "Nature," Ralph Waldo Emerson contends that man should rid himself of material cares and instead of being burdened by unneeded stress, he can enjoy an original relation with the universe and experience what Emerson calls "the sublime."

What is the central idea of the essay Nature, by Emerson?

For Emerson, nature is not literally God but the body of God’s soul. ”Nature,” he writes, is “mind precipitated.” Emerson feels that to realize one’s role in this respect fully is to be in paradise (similar to heaven itself).

What is Emerson's view of the Nature of humans?

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• Nature Essay

Essay About Nature

Nature refers to the interaction between the physical surroundings around us and the life within it like atmosphere, climate, natural resources, ecosystem, flora, fauna, and humans. Nature is indeed God’s precious gift to Earth. It is the primary source of all the necessities for the nourishment of all living beings on Earth. Right from the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the house we live in is provided by nature. Nature is called ‘Mother Nature’ because just like our mother, she is always nurturing us with all our needs. 

Whatever we see around us, right from the moment we step out of our house is part of nature. The trees, flowers, landscapes, insects, sunlight, breeze, everything that makes our environment so beautiful and mesmerizing are part of Nature. In short, our environment is nature. Nature has been there even before the evolution of human beings. 

Importance of Nature

If not for nature then we wouldn’t be alive. The health benefits of nature for humans are incredible. The most important thing for survival given by nature is oxygen. The entire cycle of respiration is regulated by nature. The oxygen that we inhale is given by trees and the carbon dioxide we exhale is getting absorbed by trees. 

The ecosystem of nature is a community in which producers (plants), consumers, and decomposers work together in their environment for survival. The natural fundamental processes like soil creation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, and water cycling, allow Earth to sustain life. We are dependent on these ecosystem services daily whether or not we are aware.

Nature provides us services round the clock: provisional services, regulating services, and non-material services. Provisional services include benefits extracted from nature such as food, water, natural fuels and fibres, and medicinal plants. Regulating services include regulation of natural processes that include decomposition, water purification, pollution, erosion and flood control, and also, climate regulation. Non-material services are the non-material benefits that improve the cultural development of humans such as recreation, creative inspiration from interaction with nature like art, music, architecture, and the influence of ecosystems on local and global cultures. 

The interaction between humans and animals, which are a part of nature, alleviates stress, lessens pain and worries. Nature provides company and gives people a sense of purpose. 

Studies and research have shown that children especially have a natural affinity with nature. Regular interaction with nature has boosted health development in children. Nature supports their physical and mental health and instills abilities to access risks as they grow. 

Role and Importance of Nature

The natural cycle of our ecosystem is vital for the survival of organisms. We all should take care of all the components that make our nature complete. We should be sure not to pollute the water and air as they are gifts of Nature.

Mother nature fosters us and never harms us. Those who live close to nature are observed to be enjoying a healthy and peaceful life in comparison to those who live in urban areas. Nature gives the sound of running fresh air which revives us, sweet sounds of birds that touch our ears, and sounds of breezing waves in the ocean makes us move within.

All the great writers and poets have written about Mother Nature when they felt the exceptional beauty of nature or encountered any saddening scene of nature. Words Worth who was known as the poet of nature, has written many things in nature while being in close communion with nature and he has written many things about Nature. Nature is said to be the greatest teacher as it teaches the lessons of immortality and mortality. Staying in close contact with Nature makes our sight penetrative and broadens our vision to go through the mysteries of the planet earth. Those who are away from nature can’t understand the beauty that is held by Nature. The rise in population on planet earth is leading to a rise in consumption of natural resources.  Because of increasing demands for fuels like Coal, petroleum, etc., air pollution is increasing at a rapid pace.  The smoke discharged from factory units and exhaust tanks of cars is contaminating the air that we breathe. It is vital for us to plant more trees in order to reduce the effect of toxic air pollutants like Carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc. 

Save Our Nature

Earth’s natural resources are not infinite and they cannot be replenished in a short period. The rapid increase in urbanization has used most of the resources like trees, minerals, fossil fuels, and water. Humans in their quest for a comfortable living have been using the resources of nature mindlessly. As a result, massive deforestation, resultant environmental pollution, wildlife destruction, and global warming are posing great threats to the survival of living beings. 

Air that gives us oxygen to breathe is getting polluted by smoke, industrial emissions, automobile exhaust, burning of fossil fuels like coal, coke and furnace oil, and use of certain chemicals. The garbage and wastes thrown here and there cause pollution of air and land. 

Sewage, organic wastage, industrial wastage, oil spillage, and chemicals pollute water. It is causing several water-borne diseases like cholera, jaundice and typhoid. 

The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in agriculture adds to soil pollution. Due to the mindless cutting of trees and demolition of greeneries for industrialization and urbanization, the ecological balance is greatly hampered. Deforestation causes flood and soil erosion.

Earth has now become an ailing planet panting for care and nutrition for its rejuvenation. Unless mankind puts its best effort to save nature from these recurring situations, the Earth would turn into an unfit landmass for life and activity. 

We should check deforestation and take up the planting of trees at a massive rate. It will not only save the animals from being extinct but also help create regular rainfall and preserve soil fertility. We should avoid over-dependence on fossil fuels like coal, petroleum products, and firewood which release harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. Non-conventional sources of energy like the sun, biogas and wind should be tapped to meet our growing need for energy. It will check and reduce global warming. 

Every drop of water is vital for our survival. We should conserve water by its rational use, rainwater harvesting, checking the surface outflow, etc. industrial and domestic wastes should be properly treated before they are dumped into water bodies. 

Every individual can do his or her bit of responsibility to help save the nature around us. To build a sustainable society, every human being should practice in heart and soul the three R’s of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. In this way, we can save our nature.  

Nature Conservation

Nature conservation is very essential for future generations, if we will damage nature our future generations will suffer.

Nowadays, technological advancement is adversely affecting our nature. Humans are in the quest and search for prosperity and success that they have forgotten the value and importance of beautiful Nature around. The ignorance of nature by humans is the biggest threat to nature. It is essential to make people aware and make them understand the importance of nature so that they do not destroy it in the search for prosperity and success.

On high priority, we should take care of nature so that nature can continue to take care of us. Saving nature is the crying need of our time and we should not ignore it. We should embrace simple living and high thinking as the adage of our lives.  

FAQs on Nature Essay

1. How Do You Define Nature?

Nature is defined as our environment. It is the interaction between the physical world around us and the life within it like the atmosphere, climate, natural resources, ecosystem, flora, fauna and humans. Nature also includes non-living things such as water,  mountains, landscape, plants, trees and many other things. Nature adds life to mother earth. Nature is the treasure habitation of every essential element that sustains life on this planet earth. Human life on Earth would have been dull and meaningless without the amazing gifts of nature. 

2. How is Nature Important to Us?

Nature is the only provider of everything that we need for survival. Nature provides us with food, water, natural fuels, fibres, and medicinal plants. Nature regulates natural processes that include decomposition, water purification, pollution, erosion, and flood control. It also provides non-material benefits like improving the cultural development of humans like recreation, etc. 

An imbalance in nature can lead to earthquakes, global warming, floods, and drastic climate changes. It is our duty to understand the importance of nature and how it can negatively affect us all if this rapid consumption of natural resources, pollution, and urbanization takes place.

3. How Should We Save Our Nature?

We should check deforestation and take up the planting of trees at a massive rate. It will save the animals from being extinct but also help create regular rainfall and preserve soil fertility. We should avoid over-dependence on fossil fuels like coal, petroleum products, and firewood which release harmful pollutants to the atmosphere. We should start using non-conventional sources of energy like the sun, biogas, and wind to meet our growing need for energy. It will check and reduce global warming. Water is vital for our survival and we should rationalize our use of water. 

It’s about our place in nature, not our dominion over it

We can all profit from taking to heart Alex Beam’s satirical column “I’ll take pets over people any day” (Opinion, Feb. 21), which touches on a truth and wisdom about the natural world and our place in it.

He writes, “There is plenty of evidence that animals are just as worthy of rescue as human beings. The Old Testament God gave humans dominion over the earth and all its creatures, but this was one of several notorious wrong calls.”

Indeed, that piece of Scripture not only has led to the misery of countless animals over the millennia but also has ingrained in our thinking the false assumption that we can control nature. Not recognizing that we are part and parcel of the great fabric of life and that all of nature is interconnected explains why we are faced today with environmental degradation and our climate crisis.

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Paul Goldberg

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What is Nature Writing?

Definition and Examples

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Nature writing is a form of creative nonfiction in which the natural environment (or a narrator 's encounter with the natural environment) serves as the dominant subject.

"In critical practice," says Michael P. Branch, "the term 'nature writing' has usually been reserved for a brand of nature representation that is deemed literary, written in the speculative personal voice , and presented in the form of the nonfiction essay . Such nature writing is frequently pastoral or romantic in its philosophical assumptions, tends to be modern or even ecological in its sensibility, and is often in service to an explicit or implicit preservationist agenda" ("Before Nature Writing," in Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism , ed. by K. Armbruster and K.R. Wallace, 2001).

Examples of Nature Writing:

• At the Turn of the Year, by William Sharp
• The Battle of the Ants, by Henry David Thoreau
• Hours of Spring, by Richard Jefferies
• The House-Martin, by Gilbert White
• In Mammoth Cave, by John Burroughs
• An Island Garden, by Celia Thaxter
• January in the Sussex Woods, by Richard Jefferies
• The Land of Little Rain, by Mary Austin
• Migration, by Barry Lopez
• The Passenger Pigeon, by John James Audubon
• Rural Hours, by Susan Fenimore Cooper
• Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, by Henry David Thoreau

Observations:

• "Gilbert White established the pastoral dimension of nature writing in the late 18th century and remains the patron saint of English nature writing. Henry David Thoreau was an equally crucial figure in mid-19th century America . . .. "The second half of the 19th century saw the origins of what we today call the environmental movement. Two of its most influential American voices were John Muir and John Burroughs , literary sons of Thoreau, though hardly twins. . . . "In the early 20th century the activist voice and prophetic anger of nature writers who saw, in Muir's words, that 'the money changers were in the temple' continued to grow. Building upon the principles of scientific ecology that were being developed in the 1930s and 1940s, Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold sought to create a literature in which appreciation of nature's wholeness would lead to ethical principles and social programs. "Today, nature writing in America flourishes as never before. Nonfiction may well be the most vital form of current American literature, and a notable proportion of the best writers of nonfiction practice nature writing." (J. Elder and R. Finch, Introduction, The Norton Book of Nature Writing . Norton, 2002)

"Human Writing . . . in Nature"

• "By cordoning nature off as something separate from ourselves and by writing about it that way, we kill both the  genre and a part of ourselves. The best writing in this genre is not really 'nature writing' anyway but human writing that just happens to take place in nature. And the reason we are still talking about [Thoreau's] Walden 150 years later is as much for the personal story as the pastoral one: a single human being, wrestling mightily with himself, trying to figure out how best to live during his brief time on earth, and, not least of all, a human being who has the nerve, talent, and raw ambition to put that wrestling match on display on the printed page. The human spilling over into the wild, the wild informing the human; the two always intermingling. There's something to celebrate." (David Gessner, "Sick of Nature." The Boston Globe , Aug. 1, 2004)

Confessions of a Nature Writer

• "I do not believe that the solution to the world's ills is a return to some previous age of mankind. But I do doubt that any solution is possible unless we think of ourselves in the context of living nature "Perhaps that suggests an answer to the question what a 'nature writer' is. He is not a sentimentalist who says that 'nature never did betray the heart that loved her.' Neither is he simply a scientist classifying animals or reporting on the behavior of birds just because certain facts can be ascertained. He is a writer whose subject is the natural context of human life, a man who tries to communicate his observations and his thoughts in the presence of nature as part of his attempt to make himself more aware of that context. 'Nature writing' is nothing really new. It has always existed in literature. But it has tended in the course of the last century to become specialized partly because so much writing that is not specifically 'nature writing' does not present the natural context at all; because so many novels and so many treatises describe man as an economic unit, a political unit, or as a member of some social class but not as a living creature surrounded by other living things." (Joseph Wood Krutch, "Some Unsentimental Confessions of a Nature Writer." New York Herald Tribune Book Review , 1952)
• Creative Nonfiction
• Defining Nonfiction Writing
• A Guide to All Types of Narration, With Examples
• What You Should Know About Travel Writing
• Notable Authors of the 19th Century
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• Top 5 Books about Social Protest
• Must Reads If You Like 'Walden'
• Great Summer Creative Writing Programs for High School Students
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• Ways of Defining Art
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• Published: 08 November 2019

Our place in the Universe

Nature Astronomy volume  3 ,  page 955 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

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• Dark energy and dark matter
• Early universe

As Nature turns 150, we look back on its close connection to the Nobel Prize in Physics and some of the most epoch-defining papers in astronomy.

This month we are celebrating Nature ’s 150th birthday. The founder and first editor was the astronomer Norman Lockyer. He was particularly interested in solar physics, which was all the rage in 1869. In fact, in the launch issue Lockyer wrote an article referring to the corona as “bizarre and puzzling” — at the time, there was no consensus as to whether the corona was a part of the Sun or an effect due to Earth’s atmosphere or some such illusion; not that long ago Johannes Kepler and Edmond Halley thought it was somehow related to the Moon! Although we now know it to be part of the Sun, just how the corona gets so hot remains a topic of intense debate.

Since 1869, many astronomical discoveries have been introduced in Nature . For example, Franco Pacini predicted that a rotating neutron star with a magnetic field would emit a detectable beam of light a year before Jocelyn Bell, Antony Hewish and three others reported the discovery of a pulsing radio source. It was Thomas Gold who noticed the two phenomena where one and the same: a pulsar.

Pulsars have continued to make headlines, not least because Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail found the first confirmed extrasolar planet — actually a pair of them! — orbiting a millisecond pulsar in 1992. However, the real sensation occurred three years later with the discovery of a Jupiter-mass planet around a Sun-like star by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, which kick-started a concerted search effort that has so far yielded more than 4,000 exoplanets. The closing paragraph of their Article in Nature satisfyingly proclaims the new era: “The search for extrasolar planets can be amazingly rich in surprises. From a complete planetary system detected around a pulsar to the rather unexpected orbital parameters of 51 Peg b, searches begin to reveal the extraordinary diversity of possible planetary formation sites.”

The early detections mostly involved hot gas giants in close orbits around their host stars due to the detection technique (radial velocity). With the launch of the Kepler mission (and the method of planetary transit), designed to find exoplanets with masses between those of Earth and Neptune, we soon learned that planets outnumber stars. Moreover, 20–50% of the stars in our Galaxy likely have rocky planets at the right distance for liquid water to exist on their surfaces. Although Kepler (and K2, its follow-on mission) has retired, TESS is currently surveying the whole sky for exoplanets that pass in front of their stars, causing a temporary dip in brightness. This mission will find a more diverse set of exoplanets than Kepler. Next month CHEOPS will be launched in order to characterize exoplanets around known planet-hosting bright stars.

In just over two decades, we’ve gone from finding the first exoplanet to being able to detect molecules in their atmospheres, including water vapour . It’s no wonder that one-half of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Mayor and Queloz. They have truly opened up our world. Our Solar System has no planet that is larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, yet this is the most common type of planet in the Galaxy. Are we the outlier? In any case, we need to reconsider our theories of planetary system formation.

The other half of the physics Nobel Prize this year went to James Peebles for his work on physical cosmology. Back in the 1950s, the idea that the Universe had a beginning and that it then expanded from this hot, dense state was not fully recognized. Bob Dicke’s group set out to look for the remnant thermal radiation of a few kelvin, and his student Peebles was working on the implications of finding (or not finding) this radiation. Unfortunately for them, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson found it first, though they didn’t know what it was. They had detected the 2.7 K cosmic microwave background (CMB) left over from the hot early Universe after the Big Bang.

Peebles would go on to develop analytic and numerical simulations of galaxy formation to turn cosmology into a precision science over the next decade. Being able to constrain the amount of matter in the Universe revealed the need for some exotic, non-baryonic form of matter to hold galaxies together. In 1982, Peebles introduced non-relativistic cold dark matter to explain structure formation as a consequence of anisotropies in the CMB. He also resuscitated the cosmological constant, 𝛬 , on physical grounds (the measured matter density was not enough to lead to a flat Universe, so inflation made sense). Both of these predictions were spectacularly confirmed, respectively, by observations of CMB anisotropies by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and by measurements of the acceleration in the expansion of the Universe using type 1a supernovae as standard candles that were dimmer than expected.

Peebles describes the heyday of the development of the 𝛬 cold dark matter theory in a Perspective . For other relevant papers on physical cosmology and exoplanets that Nature has published in the past 150 years, please see our Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 Collection .

But let us not rest on our laurels. We aim to keep publishing the kind of research that opens our eyes to the marvels of the Universe and our place within it. Take the five papers concerning Voyager 2 in this issue of Nature Astronomy . They confirm that the spacecraft left the plasma bubble of the heliosphere and entered the interstellar medium on 5 November 2018, after travelling for 41 years. Unlike Voyager 1, which made a similar crossing seven years ago, readings from the instruments on Voyager 2 suggest a thinner and smoother heliosphere boundary with a stronger interstellar magnetic field beyond. In one paper, for example, John Richardson and colleagues suggest that the transition through the heliopause occurred in less than one day and the interstellar medium closest to the boundary is much hotter and more variable than expected. In another study, Edward Stone and co-authors report observations indicating a layer between the heliopause and interstellar space where solar and interstellar winds interact. Such a layer was not observed by Voyager 1.

Whether the differences are due to changes in the solar cycle or variations in the structure of the heliopause (the outermost part of the heliosphere) is an open question that requires more data. Will there be another mission to break out of the Sun’s bubble? Well, the film Star Wars was released the same year as the Voyager launches, and created a generation that can picture a sunset on a world with two suns. We now know those worlds exist. Surely, like Tennyson’s Ulysses, it is imperative for us “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”.

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Our Place in Nature (And What Does ‘Nature’ Really Mean?)

Environmental studies senior-seminar videos dissect what nature is and how we fit in with it

by Tony Moore

There are 400 live trees and 30,000 other plants growing inside the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. These plants and trees might be part of the natural world  left on their own, but it's a good bet you wouldn't mistake this expansive retail setting for nature .  

But instead of sitting outside the Gap and contemplating a copse of palm trees, how about looking out the window into your backyard? Your shrubs and grass come from the natural world, but just because you see green and smell the outdoors blowing in the breeze doesn't mean there's really anything left of nature out there.

Or does it? Questions such as this were in the crosshairs for Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Michael Beevers when he recently offered the senior seminar Understanding Humans' Place in Nature. To accomplish the goals of the course, his students produced short films tackling the course's overarching theme, and the variations were as staggering as those found in nature itself.

"I thought the topic of the course inherently lent itself to the use of visuals and imagery," Beevers said. "Although nature is an 'idea' more than anything, video is a powerful tool for reflection, communication and education."

The final projects explored that idea from 15 unique perspectives, offering insights into everything from biophilic cities to America's front-lawn culture, the latter of which was parsed by Amanda Vandenburg '14.

"Front lawns are something that everything can connect with, since they're everywhere in the United States," she said. "During the class, we talked a lot about the differences between things being 'natural' and a part of 'nature,' and I wanted viewers to think about these topics with relation to something that's right outside their front doors."

Taking a different approach, Connor Shields '15 produced a meditative video that is evocative of Thoreau from beginning to end.

"It was very much about trying to define or discover what my emotions were to the environment around me," he said. "I wanted viewers to have a new perspective on the mundane events and interactions we experience, the sort of man-made mental environment that we are unknowingly put in each day. Maybe they might view walking down a street much differently after watching it."

Beevers says he got everything out of his students that he hoped for when he designed the class.

"The project got them invested and excited in a way writing a final paper probably could not have," he said. "Although the final product is certainly different than a final paper, they both need to lure the reader or viewer in, discuss a topic thoroughly and insightfully and in the end leave us with something to think about."

Published January 22, 2014

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Guest recital: jessica browning, harp, glass walls: a fireside chat with author amy diehl, jessica browning, harpist, healing through music.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

This article is part of the research topic.

Beyond audiovisual: novel multisensory stimulation techniques and their applications

Audio-Visual-Olfactory Immersive Digital Nature Exposure for Stress and Anxiety Reduction: A Systematic Review on Systems, Outcomes, and Challenges Provisionally Accepted

• 1 Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université du Québec, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Evidence supporting the benefits of immersive virtual reality (VR) and exposure to nature for the well-being of individuals is steadily growing. So-called digital forest bathing experiences take advantage of the immersiveness of VR to make individuals feel like they are immersed in nature, which has led to documented improvements in mental health. The majority of existing studies have relied on conventional VR experiences, which stimulate only two senses: auditory and visual. However, the principle behind forest bathing is to have one stimulate all of their senses to be completely immersed in nature. As recent advances in olfactory technologies have emerged, multisensory immersive experiences which stimulate more than two senses may provide additional benefits. In this systematic literature review, we investigate the multisensory digital nature setups used and their psychological and psychophysiological outcomes; particular focus is placed on the inclusion of smells as the third sensory modality. We searched papers published between 2016 and April 2023 on PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and IEEE Xplore. Results from our quality assessment revealed that the majority of studies (twelve) were of medium or high quality, while two were classified as low quality. Overall, the findings from the reviewed studies indicate a positive effect of including smells to digital nature experiences, with outcomes often comparable to conventional exposure to natural environments.The review concludes with a discussion of limitations observed in the examined studies and proposes recommendations for future research in this domain.

Keywords: virtual reality, natural environment, Olfactory stimuli, Multisensory virtual reality, Psychological outcome, Psychophysiological outcome, stress/anxiety, Relaxation

Received: 03 Jul 2023; Accepted: 08 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Lopes and Falk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Mx. Marilia Lopes, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université du Québec, Quebec City, Canada Dr. Tiago H. Falk, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université du Québec, Quebec City, Canada

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A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes in between the Earth and the sun, blocking its light from reaching our planet, leading to a period of darkness lasting several minutes. The resulting "totality," whereby observers can see the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, known as the corona, presents a spectacular sight for viewers and confuses animals – causing nocturnal creatures to stir and bird and insects to fall silent.

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A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth. When this happens, Earth blocks the sunlight that normally reaches the moon. Instead of that sunlight hitting the moon’s surface, Earth's shadow falls on it.

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New York Attorney General Questions Trump’s $175 Million Bond Deal

Letitia James said in court papers that the California company providing the guarantee was not qualified to do such deals in New York.

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By Ben Protess and Matthew Haag

The New York attorney general’s office on Thursday took exception to a $175 million bond that Donald J. Trump recently posted in his civil fraud case, questioning the qualifications of the California company that provided it.

The dispute stems from a $454 million judgment Mr. Trump is facing in the case, which the attorney general’s office brought against the former president and his family business. The attorney general, Letitia James, accused Mr. Trump of fraudulently inflating his net worth, leading to a monthslong trial last year that ended with a judge imposing the huge penalty.

Mr. Trump had to obtain the bond as a financial guarantee while he appeals the penalty — or else open himself up to the possibility that Ms. James would collect. Without a bond in place, she could have frozen his bank accounts and begun the complicated process of trying to seize some of his New York properties.

Mr. Trump appeared to stave off this calamity on Monday when he posted the $175 million bond from the California firm, Knight Specialty Insurance Company. Although he was originally required to secure a guarantee for the full $454 million judgment, an appeals court recently granted him a break, allowing him to post the smaller bond.

By providing the bond — which is a legal document, not an actual transfer of money — Knight essentially promises New York’s court system that it will cover $175 million of the judgment against Mr. Trump if he loses his appeal and fails to pay. In return, Mr. Trump pays a fee to Knight, and pledges it a significant amount of cash as collateral.

Now, however, Ms. James is raising questions that could imperil the deal with Knight, which is owned by Don Hankey, a billionaire who made his fortune with subprime loans . And the judge in the case, Arthur F. Engoron, has tentatively scheduled a hearing for April 22 to discuss the bond.

In a court filing on Thursday, Ms. James noted that Knight was not registered to issue appeal bonds in New York, and so she demanded that the company or Mr. Trump’s lawyers file paperwork to “justify” the bond within 10 days. Ms. James is seeking to clarify whether Knight, which had never posted a similar court bond before aiding Mr. Trump, is financially capable of fulfilling its obligation to pay the $175 million if Mr. Trump defaults.

Even if Knight lacks the funds itself, the company should be able to tap the collateral Mr. Trump pledged.

In an interview this week, Mr. Hankey said that Mr. Trump pledged $175 million in cash as collateral that was being handled by a brokerage firm. Mr. Trump, in the meantime, is able to earn interest on the money.

In a statement on Thursday, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Christopher M. Kise, slammed Ms. James, calling her case a “baseless and vindictive political crusade” and her objections to the bond an effort “to stir up some equally baseless public quarrel in a desperate effort to regain relevance.”

Mr. Hankey and Amit Shah, the chief executive of Knight Insurance Group, the parent company of Knight Specialty Insurance Company, did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday. Mr. Shah told CBS News that Knight had the authority to issue the bond through Excess Line Association of New York, a nonprofit created by New York State that serves as a facilitator between brokers and regulators.

In the earlier interview, Mr. Hankey said he had made contact with representatives of Mr. Trump after a New York judge in February imposed a $454 million judgment in the former president’s civil fraud case and offered to help him post bond. Mr. Hankey said his motivation was business, not politics.

Knight Insurance Group is one of eight companies under the Hankey Group, all based in Southern California. Mr. Hankey earned a reputation as a provider of risky and lucrative loans, specifically collateral-based debt that can be arranged more quickly than conventional loans and requires borrowers to pledge valuable assets.

His companies are known for relentlessly calling people who miss payments by a day, and repossessing vehicles from delinquent borrowers, according to news accounts and regulators.

Mr. Hankey said representatives of Mr. Trump called him after the appeals court lowered the bond to $175 million and asked if his company could arrange the bond.

“I said, ‘We’d be happy to,’” Mr. Hankey said on Wednesday. “I would have done this for Donald Trump. I would have done it for a Democrat.”

Ben Protess is an investigative reporter at The Times, writing about public corruption. He has been covering the various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies. More about Ben Protess

Matthew Haag writes about the intersection of real estate and politics in the New York region. He has been a journalist for two decades. More about Matthew Haag

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