Biophilians, Unite!

The famous biologist (and fellow Alabamian) Edward O. Wilson (here's a picture of him, friendly looking guy, huh?) has suggested that everyone is born with biophilia, a love a nature. Hank Thoreau and Johnny Muir, both heroes of mine, would expand that to every living thing and not limit
themselves strictly to humans. Hank would go one better by including rocks and such. He wonders if rocks have souls. I do not think that the genome project will uncover a nature gene in human DNA. I doubt if probes, physical or magnetic, will discover the “nature center” in human brains. More likely, biophilia is a reality because most of us want it to exist. I think, therefore, it is. Who among us does not think he/she has a special relationship with Nature? Further, every one of us has a place – a mountaintop, a stream side, a lake, a grove of trees – that reassures us of that fidelity.

What got me thinking about nature today was a story about the Gulf oil spill. Scientists are perplexed because they can’t find the oil. What? Can’t find millions of gallons of crude oil? I thought it was washing up on the beaches and ruining Louisiana, again. According to one story I listened to today on NPR, it could be that that the disaster about which all of us were assured had happened may not be as bad as we were lead to believe. It seems that maybe microbes are munching away on the oil and it is being broken down far faster than our dire predictions anticipated. I wonder if FEMA is funding the microbes?

Then, I was on my land, chopping down privet as fast as I can position the saw. I asked myself, is this the right thing to do, chop down these perfectly healthy trees? Think of the cleansing effect these trees have on the air. Think of global warming and how these trees help mitigate it. I actually stopped what I was doing to consider the point. What drives me to rid the land of privet is how the privet has acted so much like humans. Think of privet as the school-house bully. They refused to play nice with any of the other trees and bushes. Instead, privet wanted it all. To my way of thinking, what I am doing is dealing out some good old rural justice. If you can’t behave yourself, then you have to go.

But all of that is far-afield from biophilia. I am not sure I agree with Dr. Wilson. I think people think they love Nature when, in fact, they fear it. I am firmly in Thomas Hobbes’ camp when it comes identifying the driving force of human behavior. It sure isn’t love or charity or kindness. It is fear. Pure and simple. Imagine the terror of being dumped in the wilderness with your survival dependent upon your skills and luck. Most of us would wither at the thought. Or, on a less dramatic level, think about snakes. I used to walk cautiously on my land for fear that I might step on one of the nasty serpents. I don’t think about it much anymore but I still fear the things. I keep telling myself that the black-hearted devils serve some kind of purpose.

What I have discovered is that the more you live with Nature, the more it grows on you. I mean, you lose your fears and hesitations the more you are a part of it. Rather than there being an instinctual connection to Nature, I tend to think it is more acquired and learned. To appreciate Nature, you have to make your peace with her.