Rethinking Nature: Environmental Humanities and the Interpretation of the Natural World

 

 

Introduction

As a field, Environmental Humanities is not limited to describing environmental problems; it explores the cultural roots of our ecological challenges. By drawing on human stories, traditions, myths, and philosophical ideas, Environmental Humanities reveals how modern societies have come to prioritize profit and progress over the ecological balance that sustains both. This cross-disciplinary perspective leads us to ask why industrial revolutions, colonial legacies and consumer cultures have shaped our environmental values and why rearranging these values is as important as technological fixes.

In the 21st century, environmental crises such as climate change, deforestation, species extinction, and pollution have compelled humanity to rethink its relationship with nature. While science and technology offer important solutions, another field has emerged to help us reimagine how we understand these challenges: Environmental Humanities (EH).

Environmental humanities draw together philosophy, literature, history, cultural studies and anthropology to consider how human stories and culture have enabled and constrained our choices and actions in relationship to the living world. But rather than simply ask “How do you fix the planet? EH further inquiries, “What are the stories, values and histories that got us here, and what does it mean to begin to change those stories to heal our planet?”

Why Environmental Humanities Matter

Environmental Humanities also highlight the emotional and ethical dimensions of decision-making. For example, while climate scientists can predict rising sea levels with precision, Environmental Humanities explore how feelings such as grief, fear, or hope shape a community’s willingness to respond and act collectively. This is important to policy and education, as emotional connection is what leads to long-term environmental caretaking. When a solution doesn’t have cultural buy-in, the best scientific solution can’t solve anything.

The environmental humanities:

·       Decolonize stories – How literature, art, and media influence what we think of as “nature”.

·       Challenge human exceptionalism – Challenge the notion that humans are separate from, superior to or immune to, nature.

·       Centering Marginal Voices: Recognizing how Indigenous knowledge systems and local communities offer alternative understandings of sustainability, often rooted in reciprocity and balance rather than exploitation.

·       Reframing Justice: Exploring climate change through questions of morality, fairness, and the principles of degrowth, which challenge dominant models of endless economic expansion.

 

Figure 1 Applied science vs. arts research in environmental studies

Stories That Shape Our Planet

As human beings, we carry an innate sense of narrative—we understand the world through stories, whether told on the page, on the screen, or within cultural rituals. Environmental Humanities study these narratives to reveal how they can both inspire and hinder collective action in the face of ecological crises.

Eco-literature and Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi)

Movies and books are helping people to receive what earth is going to survive. Storytelling makes global crises personal. Engaging and impacting stories allows readers to take part in lives which are far off from their own realizing the issue with a different perspective giving them empathy and knowledge on that subject. Nowadays, people are becoming more aware of what is happening in the world due to books.

At the same time, literature acts as critique. The article emphasizes that climate change is still happening due to histories of colonialism inequality and the use of economies that only extract. As a result of it, this asks the public to think of the possibilities that could come out of the situation while implementing new ways to understand our situations.

Literature develops ideas that come from science and policy by having an emotional side, an intuitive sense that makes people think hard about things. It points out that surviving depends on people, performing rituals, and nature and it is not necessary strict system that we only want to strengthen for survival.

Timeline of Environmental Humanities

• 1990s: Emerged as an interdisciplinary field, bringing together literature, history, philosophy, and environmental studies.
• 2000s: Rise of climate fiction (cli-fi) and the growth of eco-criticism as major critical frameworks.
• 2010s: Increasing recognition of Indigenous legal rights and their integration into environmental policy debates.
• 2020s: Expansion of Environmental Humanities into areas such as urban design, education, and climate justice movements.

Environmental Humanities in Action

Research from Environmental Humanities actually gives us new information’s which we can use. This new kind of seeing takes history, literature, philosophy, and so much more, to understand eccentrical crises and prepare for the future. It transforms learning in classrooms into personal experience to include stories, musings, and feelings from different points of view.

Conclusion: New Stories to Save the World

The Environmental Humanities advocate crafting new cultural narratives of justice, reciprocity and belonging. In other words, the new stories of justice, reciprocity and belonging can be created through the Environmental Humanities. As Amitav Ghosh notes, “Atheism may be the biggest challenge now, even greater than climate change,” a reminder that the crisis is as much about culture and spirit as it is science.

Climate grief and storytelling coping – loss through narrative

One of the most valuable contributions of environmental humanities is the ability to offer a way to understand climate grief; the sense of loss and concern communities feel when they see environmental degradation. We can work through these feelings together through stories in books, movies and collective projects. Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior and the documentary My Octopus Teacher challenge audiences to grapple with a sense of ecological despair, but they also allow for the emergence of empathy, resilience, and re-commitment.  As a result, narratives are made a tool to transform our grieving into social change.