Caring for the environment: a conscious approach or a tribute to fashion?

The boom, or, as they say now, the global “hype” of the fight for the environment has become especially pronounced in recent decades. A huge number of environmental funds, studies, expeditions, forums and conferences have appeared, where scientists and activists scare humanity with global warming, the disappearance of natural resources and rare animals. For some time now, the prefix “eco” has often been added to the word “products” on price tags and in advertising, builders promise housing using eco-technologies and from eco-materials in ecologically clean areas, and authorities at all levels – environmentally friendly waste processing plants.

Some of us, without waiting for these factories, have already begun to sort household waste into different containers: glass, tin and plastic separately. New “green” faculties are opening in universities – and they train specialists who were previously mentioned only in science fiction. It seems that the world is obsessed with ecology.

A few years ago, a large-scale international study was conducted in 44 countries, including Russia: 40 respondents answered the question of what worries them. It turned out that earthlings are worried about global warming and lack of water and food. These two points were only preceded by the problem of terrorism. The Russians turned out to be a little more optimistic than their neighbors on the planet. But in general, every fourth out of ten respondents is confident that the situation will only worsen in the near future.

We are worried about the state of the environment, but at the same time we often take care of it with one hand, and destroy it ourselves with the other. 44-year-old Alexey admits that he throws garbage into the forest on the way from the dacha: “Well, why not take him to the city?” And with undisguised pride, he says that he recently transferred 10 thousand rubles to one of the funds for the conservation of rare animals. How does this irresistible desire to save the world and spoil it get along in one person and in humanity as a whole? And how does nature react to such an ambivalent attitude towards it?

Garbage inside – garbage outside

Man is the only creature on the planet that is capable of consciously harming himself directly and indirectly – harming the environment.

“The simplest picture that each of us sees on the street is a smoking person. He litters inside himself and throws a cigarette butt on the ground,” explains psychologist Ev Khazina, a specialist in eating behavior. “He doesn’t want responsibility for himself, or for his health, or for the health of the city and the planet.”

Why is he doing this? There are many reasons. There are those who do not feel the strength in themselves to streamline themselves and the world around them. And someone is experiencing a deep conflict with himself and the world and thus expresses this discord. Internal conflict often manifests itself externally in the form of addiction: malnutrition, smoking, alcohol, drugs, toxic relationships. Sometimes this conflict is reflected in the way of life: for example, someone surrounds himself with unnecessary things, excessive contacts.

“More often this is either a careless attitude towards yourself and your body, or low literacy (many do not understand what is good for their body), or a deep trauma, often received in childhood. So, for some, being overweight is the only way to feel protected, ”explains Ev Khazina.

Our culture is such that a sense of constant insufficiency is brought up in us: there is not enough for us. We consume not out of necessity, but because in this way we indirectly satisfy emotional needs that we cannot satisfy directly.

“We replace the experience of joy with the desire to possess something. We want intimacy – we give gifts. We are sad – we buy sweets. But the candy will settle with fat in the body, and the candy wrapper will become another garbage. There will be more garbage inside and outside, but joy will not increase, such a vicious circle, ”the psychologist believes.

Behind the mountains of our garbage lies the inability to digest the excess, agrees with a colleague analytical psychologist, Jungian fairy tale therapist Alla German. “As if humanity is losing its sense of proportion. We absorb, eat, throw away what we could not let through ourselves, and consume further. The animal will never eat too much, will not kill a duck in reserve. In nature, everything strives for balance: if you are hungry – eat, full – do not eat, if you want to drink – drink.

If a tree is cut down, then somewhere nearby in a clearing a seed will definitely sprout. Nature does not tolerate emptiness, it teaches us the laws of balance – those that are not always subject to our consciousness.

“Once upon a time, the American Indians were asked to sign a paper stating that this land now belongs to them. They could not understand: how could this be? It didn’t fit into their paradigm. In their culture and worldview, they belonged to nature, but not vice versa, ”Alla German gives an example.

Today there has been a paradigm shift: man has come to believe that he is the king of nature. But we are one with her, and this is supported in many cultural traditions – rituals, myths, fairy tales. And this should not be forgotten.

According to the laws of the ancestors

In traditional cultures, man has always lived in unison with nature: waking up and going to bed, sowing and harvesting – everything obeyed natural rhythms. Now these rhythms have been knocked down by an urban civilized person. But the farther from megacities, the more noticeable is the symbiosis of man and nature. And the more a person understands his place in this union.

Ethnographer Oksana Zvidnaya has been studying the culture of the indigenous peoples of the North and the Far East for many years. Using their example, she understood how for many centuries people and nature have harmoniously coexisted with each other, maintaining balance and contractual relations. Among the Nenets reindeer herders, for example, it is forbidden to invade the earth, even sticking a sharp object into it without a ritual is impossible, because it is alive. Because of this, including they are in conflict with the oil industry. And the Udege – the hunters of the Ussuri taiga, where the Amur tiger lives – even before the laws on hunting and fishing appeared, they knew what a sense of proportion was.

“Visiting hunters do not understand why the locals do not go to the hill for prey, they say, are they just lazy? says the ethnographer. “No, the locals know to let the beast upstairs breed in peace. He will still come later. For them, conservation is in their blood. They will never kill a pregnant female. And if they get the beast, then they perform a ritual, asking nature for forgiveness. Indigenous peoples have an internal limitation that a civilized person should learn from. They don’t take more from nature than they need.”

But hypermarkets today offer a plethora of plant-based products—maybe it’s time for us to stop killing animals, both wild and farmed?

“To protect animals while eating meat is hypocrisy,” says Ev Khazina. Oksana Zvidnaya does not agree with such a program. She is convinced that caring for nature does not require veganism or vegetarianism. Indigenous peoples treat the environment with the utmost respect and at the same time eat meat: it is simply indispensable in a climate where half a year is snow and frost.

“Once, in a harsh Far Eastern winter, I found myself almost alone in a winter hut in the taiga,” recalls the ethnographer. – It’s minus 30 outside. In the next house there is a sick bedridden old man. We were left half the carcass of a red deer, a Far Eastern deer, for two, but the dogs stole it. There was some cereal and pasta, frozen sauerkraut. There were at least two weeks left before the helicopter arrived. Primal fears woke up in me, and I began to figure out how I would ask the gods of the taiga to help me get the beast and survive. Fortunately, the helicopter arrived earlier.

We must recognize our own nature, not trying to remake it, says Oksana Zvidnaya, but at the same time not to take from the surrounding nature beyond what we really need for life.

“Indigenous peoples believe that if people misbehaved, violated the laws of their ancestors, nature will put them in their place and explain who is the boss here,” the ethnographer explains. Luck will leave a person or someone close to him will get sick, or even die, or a natural disaster may break out. And the shaman will first of all ask: what did you do wrong? You need to listen to the wise ancestors: they knew how to build relationships with nature and accept themselves as part of it, Oksana Zvidnaya is convinced.

Get off the chariot

One of the laws of nature is the death of all living things. “From the moment of birth, together with eros, thanatos accompanies us: the finale, to which we inexorably go,” says Alla German. “Mid-life crisis is just the point where we start to see the final destination. We recognize the naturalness of physical withering, but we try to develop other, “immortal” organs in ourselves – inner eyes, ears, to learn something deep about ourselves and the world and pass this knowledge on. But if the fear of death is too strong in us, it can make us feel that nature is a hostile force whose laws we would like to oppose. Then we try to deny our kinship and as a result we violate our own ecology.

Different industries play on the fear of fading: food, cosmetics, medical — stretching the first, “young” half of life. We are offered rejuvenating cleansing programs, cosmetics, entertainment, for which we will forget about the finiteness of being. But when we do not want to see the final point of our existence, we miss an important stage of maturity, says the analytical psychologist. The one on which we outgrow the selfish-consumer approach, which is often characteristic of youth, and get a chance to feel connected to all life on the planet.

In pursuit of youth, we often overestimate the possibilities. Alla Herman suggests recalling the myth of Phaeton: “His mother, an earthly nymph, wanted him, like his father Helios, the Sun, to be a god. But he was born a man and could not, no matter how hard he tried, cope with the chariot of Helios. We, mankind, today are “carried” on a fiery chariot. And we can’t stop in any way, although we understand that we risk perishing, we don’t notice that we are rushing from ourselves, from our nature – in every sense.

It’s time for us to learn ecological thinking! You can start today, Ev Khazina is sure. For example, before buying a product, think: what will I do with it, what will I do with the packaging? Do I need this coat, how long can I carry it? What will this education give me? What am I working for? Am I spending energy on things that are truly sustainable for me? Asking yourself these questions is a simple but useful skill, psychologists say.