Measuring Nature Intimacy: A Crucial Step Towards Promoting Environmental Sustainability and Planetary Well-being
What if we evaluated our success and contribution based on a nature intimacy scale? Instead of relying on DSM-IV, we could assess the consequences of our disconnection from the natural world. Nature intimacy refers to the emotional bond or connection that we have with the natural world. It's a profound sense of oneness with nature that allows us to experience the world as a living entity with which we can communicate, relate to, and belong.
Recent research has shown that nature intimacy has a positive impact on our mental health, well-being, and environmental behavior. This emotional connection with nature can inspire us to take action to protect the environment and live a more sustainable lifestyle. However, there is currently no standardized scale to measure nature intimacy, making it difficult to understand the extent of our disconnection from nature and the impact of our efforts to reconnect.
Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm. It’s about doing more good. —Jochen Zeitz
A nature intimacy scale could play a critical role in creating an ecological awakening on individual and collective levels. Organizations could use it as a guiding score card and make it part of the fabric of organizational life. Imagine your yearly review including how well you took into consideration the needs of the natural world in the way you do your work? Or, an organization in it's report to shareholders, considering Mother Nature as the largest stakeholder akin to what Patagonia has achieved with their vision:
Our ideal is to make products that give back to the Earth as much as they take. —Patagonia, Core Values
On an individual level, and a family level it would allow us to measure our connection with nature and track changes in our relationship with the natural world. By using a nature intimacy scale, we could identify the factors that contribute to nature intimacy and develop strategies to improve our connection with nature.
To create a nature intimacy scale, we could draw on existing research on nature connection and use a mixed-methods approach. It could include questions that measure different aspects of nature intimacy, such as our emotional connection to nature, our sense of oneness with nature, and our willingness to protect the environment. The scale could also incorporate subjective measures, such as open-ended questions, to capture the richness and diversity of our experiences with nature. And it could be something that we intimately design for ourselves based on our cultural values and the values we aspire to uphold.
Measuring nature intimacy would provide us with a baseline for understanding our connection to nature and help us track changes over time. We could use this information to develop interventions that promote nature intimacy and evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions. The data could also help us better understand the relationship between nature intimacy, environmental behavior, and well-being.
Nature intimacy is a powerful concept that has the potential to inspire an ecological awakening on individual and collective levels. Developing a nature intimacy scale would be a crucial step towards understanding our connection with nature and developing strategies to improve it. By fostering a deeper connection with nature, we can promote environmental sustainability and improve our mental health and well-being. And if we can measure it better, let's make nature intimacy the sexiest trend on the planet, so that organizations, communities, and individuals are more motivated to act now.
