Empathy: the answer to changing our failed relationship with the planet

From an early age, I have always felt strongly empathetic towards our planet. Learning about climate change at school was one of the first things that really engaged an emotional reaction in me. I came home from school one day and started turning off lights as people left the room and turning off taps when my parents were brushing their teeth. My understanding of our human impact on the planet has therefore existed for as long as I can remember.

A result of this is that I have always seen us humans as simply a species amongst many who are lucky enough to live on this planet. Who, due to miraculous natural circumstances, have come to reside, thrive and make memories on this Earth. We are, in my mind, just a small part of the picture for which I am so grateful to be a part of.

However, this attitude has for a long while been uncommon. We, humans, are arrogant. Our intelligence has persuaded us to think of our planet as something which serves us. Like petrol stations, restaurants and shopping centres, the Earth has become a resource to facilitate our modern lifestyle.

We have come to see our land, oceans and skies as something for us to use, rather than respecting them as phenomena of their own. The march of modernity, as such, has led us to be so far removed from the Earth that we walk on, that it is crumbling beneath our feet.

For me, this relationship with the planet is the biggest of all tragedies — one not written, but lived. It goes like this: Earth evolves the human species, human species dominates, humans take advantage of Earth, Earth then dies. How did we become so wrapped up in our modern world to forget where we came from? I argue from a desperate lack of thanks and empathy for the Earth that gives us the air to breathe.

My university dissertation touched on this when I asked if progress, the concept of continually improving through time, is ultimately unsustainable. Our arrogant belief in continual human progress has convinced us that the Earth is too something we can ‘progress’.

However, our Earth is not a machine that delivers on demand; it is not a piece of modern technology which we can edit and control. Nature is not simply a technical problem to overcome. For the Earth is a living breathing thing at its core. Mother nature will and is having the last word.

Seeing the total devastation of the Australian bush fires is a prime and painful example of this. This is where all the human intelligence and technology in the world cannot fight the long term damage of climate change we have made on the planet, at present.

The overall increase in the planet’s temperature from climate change has led to the unprecedented scale of these wildfires. The long drought, soaring temperatures and strong winds have all converged to create the worst fires Australia has seen in decades. Thus, we are finally seeing with our own eyes the destruction that climate change can cause.

The blood red skies and hazy horizons are something we can no longer turn a blind eye to. This is climate change staring us in the face. The devastation of these fires hence illustrates our inability to cope with the damage we have done.

It’s time to look into ourselves and ask an important question: what do we humans really matter? The Earth has existed for thousands of years before us and thrived before we began to take advantage of it. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way we view the Earth that is leading us to its demise. We must shake off our arrogance and put the planet first to begin the healing.

At what point, then, will we start to prioritise healing our human relationship to the planet? Our relationship to the hectares of land that are currently burning and hundreds of thousands of animals that are dying. If seeing the Australian bush fires makes you feel anything, then turn that feeling into empathy towards our planet.

Here are some ways I think we can practically engage such ‘empathy’:

• Each time you purchase a new item think about the processes that have taken place for that to be made, and where those materials may have come from. This will help move us closer to manufacturing processes that supermarkets and online shopping has removed us so far from. A toothbrush, for example, will exist for 399.5 years after it has been used and disposed of after just 6 months. With each household item, there is a similar story.

• Each time you choose something to eat, think about where the produce has come from and the farming and manufacturing that has taken place for it to get to your plate. I genuinely believe that each conscious decision we make about the food we eat will help. Vegetarian for one day a week with all 7 billion of us will most definitely make a difference.
• Each time you travel somewhere think about the emissions that will be produced in you getting from A to B. Each of us deciding to walk where possible and taking public transport where easier will have a huge overall impact on CO2 emissions. Using the two legs I am lucky enough to walk with, where I can, will always be free — that is enough to convince me.

Taking the time to make thoughtful and conscious decisions in our modern lives I think will help re-balance this broken relationship. By changing our relationship to the planet to one of care, empathy and thanks, we can begin each act that we make as humans with the planet at the forefront of our minds. This is the most empathetic thing we can do.

It is easy but cowardly therefore, to stay within our modern bubble and forget where we are. It is more challenging but noble to take positive steps towards making our impact on the planet less devastating. A little bit of empathy will make that change in psyche less a challenge, more a passion.

I am not naive in knowing that tackling climate change will take a lot more than this. The leaders of our world have a huge responsibility in setting a precedent for the future. But changing our attitude is something we can all do to help us on our way to undoing the damage done.

Like a toxic relationship, it will take time to undo all the bad habits. Empathy is the first step in healing that relationship which we have so badly broken.