Unconventional portrayal of Human-Nature interactions

Nature, like good branding, loves simple ideas. There are no complex routes prescribed, no obfuscating insights to master, no impossible-looking flow-charts dotting the path, and no shiny slogans cover them. For instance, if research shows that one-time-use plastics are harmful for the environment, a simple resolution to not use plastics by the common man is better than the entire country waiting for a regulation banning them or a thousand walk-outs in the parliament or a zillion committees sitting for years and debating on the pros and cons of allocating budget for bins that segregate trash! You get the point…

To understand the situation that human-environment relationship is in and to understand the direction in which this relationship needs to move, I have thought up of simple line-drawings. This post isn’t going to suggest what needs to be done nor is it going to list all the actions that can be adopted. The first move is to invariably explain the situation in a language that everyone understands. The common man doesn’t ever read research manuscripts and neither do they sit and analyse the various options as pedagogues are accustomed to. The common man makes his decision fast and, therefore, needs explanations that happen in a few lines. The common man is so like a good brand. Good brands also depend upon simplicity of innovative ideas because they are invariably easy to understand and seamless to execute.

The four things to be understood so far as humans and nature are concerned, can be:

The types of nature-human situations
The triggers that can change situations and thus, the future
Dialogue leads to an exploration of possibilities
The progression of dialogue to experience

1
The types of nature-human situations

If you think that the stage of peaceful co-existence is over, you’re mistaken. There are belts where the human-nature relationship doesn’t get bogged down by conflicts. However, it is obvious that in case of a conflict, it has always been nature that gets visibly diminished. What we do not realise is that a diminished nature is the actually the precursor to a disintegration of human values and may lead to the extinction of our race. Forests, for instance need their own space without concrete jungles encroaching upon their territories – something that newspaper reports tells us is happening to the Aravalis near Delhi. Chris Maser wrote that what ‘we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another,’ which simply means that it is our own nature that needs to change before we think of protecting nature that we see outside of ourselves.

Nature knows best_peaceful co-existence

Nature knows best_conflict with nature

Nature knows best_unhealthy relationship

The three line-drawings for this section are simply to tell us that the movement or progression of our relationship with nature isn’t a long-winding tale that needs eons or a thousand reams of paper to explicate. The devastation can be felt in a matter of just three drawings and bring out the fact that #NatureKnowsBest.

2
The triggers that can change situations and thus, the future

Once we are clear about the speed with which relationships degrade, we need to understand the role of relief. It is remedies that make all the difference when conflict strikes.

The first step is to initiate a dialogue. No, I am not talking about the interaction between activism and the government or groups of concerned citizen and the representatives in the assemblies and the parliament. I am not talking of the conversations that may take place between erudite pundits and excited anchors on the small screen. All I want is that we go out and establish our own private dialogue with nature every day.

Nature knows best_triggers lead to meaningful conversations

Nature knows best_situation catalyses triggers

Simple. Isn’t it? A conversation with your potted plants as you go out to water them, a loving interaction with strange and towering trees as you walk through a park early in the morning, and a dialogue that doesn’t end as the day ends is what creates a strong and lasting bond between us humans and nature. These conversations, like any other anywhere, will invariably lead to triggers that will finally lead to experiences and great results. This is the way good brands make themselves immortal. This is the way we define a great marketing policy. This is the way sustainable management works its way through competition and unsavory moments to bounce back into life. So this has to be the way humans need to search for solutions for their problems. The eco-system isn’t going to get well unless humans learn to hold revitalizing conversations with it. Believe me, this is true.

Obviously, when the situation gets serious, the search begins for triggers that will activate solutions. These triggers happen when conflict has led to an unhealthy situation. These triggers happen when everyone wants to go on and enter the future and not just blow it away pre-maturely. I have tried to represent the dynamics of the need for this search in this line drawing.

3
Dialogue leads to an exploration of possibilities

Innovative thought stands out as clichéd ones look similar and predictable. For instance, the Chipko movement was an innovative thought that led to the start of a literal revolution in saving the environment. The way the Bishnois protect Blackbucks inspires people all over the world to link themselves to actions that favour keeping an eco-flavor in their region. When such actions are brought out in the form of a dialogue, surprising new innovative thoughts have a higher probability of emerging.

Nature knows best_innovative experiences lead to good results

As Keats said, ‘the poetry of the earth is never dead’. This means that our environment or nature is always ready to participate in a wholesome dialogue. Brand management strategists also believe that when consumers are in a heart-to-heart dialogue with brand managers through surveys, interactions, and interviews the resultant is the emergence of a platform for new experiences.

4
The progression of dialogue to experience

It is creative conversations and innovative ideas that give us unique experiences though some of these experiences may also be infused with unexpected and unconventional dna. This is because experiences have an uncanny habit of shunning familiarity and love to hobnob with differences. It is this habit of experiences that gives us innovative ways to see situations. In this context, it is unexpected experiences that have always led to effective solutions to various environment issues.

Nature knows best_innovative ideas and action

I remember meeting a local in the forest on Havelock island who offered short bamboo sticks to be used as drinking pipes… and the massive coconut in my hands suddenly transformed into an eco-effort. This was years back but I’d rate this experience as completely unexpected but one that came ready to solve the problems that are attached to plastic drinking pipes.

What is worth knowing is that nature has all its solutions hidden within it and so all we need to do is to search for them in earnest. Some incidents like the eco-warrior I met on Havelock island as examples of solutions already being used but wanting exposure through dialogue. Nature knows best and all that humans must do is to say hello to exploring options in place of remaining static and sticking to those choices that are not environment friendly.

Nature knows best_exploring new options is a winner

Something more about human-nature interactions

These interactions between humans and nature are limitless and we are still at the start of a long and interesting voyage. It isn’t just a few solutions that nature has to offer because every time we adopt and promote actions that prove to be detrimental to nature there are native solutions that have already been conceptualized and are waiting to be discovered. Solutions to human-nature conflicts are never going to be industry-produced or factory-made but can be sourced from nature itself.

Isn’t it interesting to know that nature is actually observing human actions all the time and working hard to create solutions to problems that it knows are going to raise their head sooner or later? Each of us has the potential to be a discoverer… so let us interact closely with nature and be the first to discover yet another nature-borne solution to save nature!

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#OpenNTalk

This post is published for #OpenNTalk Blogger’s League hosted by Gleefulblogger & Wigglingpen in association with SummerBarn, Vedantika Herbals, Nyassa, Explore Kids World.

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#NISSATalks

Our group of 5 bloggers goes by the hashtag #NISSATalks and have decided to present five different perspectives to a single topic with a unique hashtag each week. For week 04 our hashtag is #NatureKnowsBest and you can also read what the others in the group wrote:

Ishieta wrote: Click here
Sudha wrote: Click here
Nupur wrote: Click here
Silja wrote: Click here
Arvind wrote: That’s me, silly!

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Arvind Passey
29 June 2018