Orr Biophilia

"Moreover, it is possible to adopt the language and guise of biophilia and do a great deal of harm to the earth, knowingly or unknowingly."(Orr, p 193)

I would assume that this is where most of the people of earth fall. You have the people that do everything they can to save the environment, you have the people who don’t care about the environment and they knowingly do stuff that will hurt the environment, but most of the people want to help the environment and they don’t know how to help it or they don’t know what they are doing hurts the environment. Everyone knows the basics, like recycling and biking instead of driving places but unless they take a class in environmental protection they most likely don’t know what else to do. Either our society needs to teach more classes on how to protect our environment or we will continue to, either knowingly or unknowingly, hurt the environment.

Photo Taken by Zachary Frederick at Lake Joffre in Pemberton, BC, Canada

"We also have reason to believe that people can lose the sense of biophilia." (Orr, p 196)

I agree with the fact that people can lose a sense of biophilia. I think this happens when a tribe or a culture that hasn’t experienced modern technologies finally experiences them. They see how hard their lives were before they got these technologies and how easy it got after. I think this happens a lot in many cultures. People stop worrying about others when their lives get easier. They will in turn stop worrying about the environment. This paints a picture of a selfish society but I think that’s what we have turned into. It will take reeducation and a separation from technology to truly force people to care about the environment. I also think that since people can lose a sense of biophilia, they can also gain back that sense of biophilia. If societies begin to move make into nature instead of cities, people will begin to appreciate the environment. This will help improve our environment.

  

Photo taken by Zachary Frederick at Lynn Canyon in Vancouver, BC, Canada

"It means rebuilding family farms, rural villages, towns, communities, and urban neighborhoods. It means restoring local culture and our ties to local places, where biophilia first takes root." 

(Orr, p 206)

I think that this would be the best start to changing the environment and changing people’s mindset about the environment. If a town or culture truly has to live off the land they will be more willing to pay attention to what they are doing to the environment. Family farms will promote ways to use the environment to our advantage without ruining it. If a farm ruins the environment they are working in, then their farm will no longer produce the crops they need.  Urban neighborhoods will allow us to keep the modern technologies that we all love while still living around and in the environment without running it. This will teach future generations how to appreciate the environment while still using it to our advantage. If we continue to move into cities and distance us from the environment, we will continue to destroy the environment.

Photo Taken by Zachary Frederick at Lake Joffre in Pemberton, BC, Canada

Orr, D. W. (2011). Love It or Lose It: The Coming Biophilia Revolution. In University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future (pp. 186-211). Acton, MA: Copley Custom Textbooks.