Defining Expanded Environmentalism
There’s a tree in our front yard, right outside our living room window, that has been a significant presence in our lives since we bought our house 17 years ago. I should know what kind of tree it is - but I don’t. It’s about 30 - 40 feet tall. It’s got broad, small deciduous leaves. It’s been through one very brutal hurricane (since we’ve lived in the house) and seemed to only shake a few leaves while several other, much larger trees in our neighborhood toppled over. But that’s about all I can tell you. I’ve even tried to identify the tree by doing a little research online. Over the years, we hung a couple of swings from this tree to accommodate a small human (who is not so small, anymore). This multi-sized human and I also climbed the tree on a few occasions - higher than we probably should have.
I thought about this tree the other day when contemplating the modern concept of “nature.”
When we modern humans imagine nature, we tend to envision a place with lots of trees - or at least a lot of non-human stuff. Houses, buildings, cars and other human artifacts tend to be absent - or in short supply - in “nature.” The less we see of us and our material creations, according to this perspective, the more nature there is.
When I look out my living room window, I see - aside from the tree - several human artifacts: our street with the occasional passing car, our neighbors’ houses, trash cans and so on and though we live on a quiet street, we’re definitely not out in “nature.” And yet, I wonder about the tree. Does it know it’s not out in nature?
It seems ridiculous that a tree which we define as part of “nature” would not actually be in nature just because it lives in a suburban neighborhood. This seems even more silly when considering that, just under the grass are complex root systems where that tree and other trees are intertwined along with complex webs of mushroom mycelium that help these root systems gain nutrients and communicate. But we don’t really see that. It’s much easier to see the individual tree.
How like that tree are you and I? To the modern observer, it seems like we are all like individual trees. At the same time, we do have our sensory roots tied into our environment and so there must be more “nature” that we’re connected to than what appears on the surface.
With this in mind, I propose a new term: Expanded Environmentalism.*
Expanded Environmentalism is built on 3 principles:
Engage with the more-than-human world through direct experience and share that experience.
Realize that the environment is not just something “out there,” but is also in here and everywhere in between.
Embrace the weird and the mundane alike when considering our more-than-human ecosphere.
Engage with the more-than-human world through direct experience and share that experience.
Practicing Expanded Environmentalism could be inspired by something as simple as experiencing one’s skin as it makes contact with different qualities of air and then translating those observations through writing, art, music, etc. Expanded Environmentalism encourages a polyculture of ideas and sharing different ways of knowing the more-than-human world.
A complement to other forms of environmentalism, which encourage larger group efforts aimed at protecting the environment from degradation and promoting sustainable practices through advocacy, policy change, and community action, Expanded Environmentalism focuses on zooming in, noticing those small “wow” moments inspired by the more-than-human world and then transmitting those moments to others.
Expanded Environmentalism invites us to go beyond the simple tools of expression. For example, is there something super-sensory in an environment which media technology alone can’t capture? Does our experiential range of blue or sense of vibrant vastness of the sky exceed that of the camera? How would one convey one’s own mind state, the thrum of solar energy on one’s skin or even sore muscles into an encapsulation of this moment? How do we create impressionistic windows that present the more-than-human-world to others in novel ways while also allowing us to more finely-attune our own senses.
To mirror our diverse planetary ecological webs, Expanded Environmentalism aims to diversify the accounts of our collective experiential ecologies.
Realize that the environment is not just something “out there,” but is also in here and everywhere in between.
That we would feel separate from nature - inside our homes, work environments and commercial structures has more to do with the paradigm through which these dwellings were created than anything having to do with a simple indoor/outdoor binary. I can be inside a cave, for example, and still feel like I’m “out” in nature. Our habitats don’t by and large mimic the natural patterns of the more-than-human world. We have reshaped natural elements such as wood, rock and metal so that they are barely recognizable from their original forms and now exist as components of living spaces aimed to serve a breed of humans detached from a more-than-human existence.
Then again, who’s to say that our grid-system rectangular realities and flatscreen TVs aren’t manifestations of nature playing with different forms?
At the same time, we do seem to take long-established natural patterns with us - even as we migrate into virtual realms. There is, for example, an uncanny resemblance between mushroom mycelial growth and a map of the internet.
Map of the Internet (left) and mushroom mycelium (right)
What other natural patterns are we unintentionally taking with us? How in control of our world are we really? Are we merely an expression of life constantly seeking novelty over a long arc of time? Are we the authors or merely the players?
***
The frontier of cyberspace is made of nothing but thoughts and ideas. Every photo, every video, every bit of text is an idea. Cyberspace is an ecosystem of ideas. One could look at biological life forms as a collection of ideas over a long arc of time. Our species adaptations are ideas about how we can make slow alterations in our physical form to better survive. Our pets have collectively developed ideas to adapt us so that we will, in turn, accommodate them. Does it matter at what level of consciousness these ideas happen? Though creatures may not overtly think “it’s time to begin working on growing that tail, today” there is an idea working on a deep level.
In the cyber and biological realms alike, these “ideas” emerge, are composted or merge with other ideas and so on. Seeing things in this way breaks down the barrier between inner, outer and virtual worlds, thus making it hard to keep the environment “out there.”
Inner and outer are strange distinctions, when one really probes into it. Am I really me at all - that is, as I currently see me in the me-suit? If I zoomed out 10,000 miles into space I would be a planet. If I zoomed in 10,000x, I would be a colony of some beasties that can only be seen with an electron microscope. The me that is wiggling my fleshy boney extensions on a keyboard is inextricably linked to the macro and micro versions of me.
NASA photo of Earth as viewed from 10,000 miles
Embrace the weird and the mundane alike when considering our more-than-human ecosphere.
It seems we could benefit from a more magical way of understanding the more-than-human world. As I type that sentence , I realize that “magical” is such a loaded term - often with negative connotations or at least denoting something not to be taken seriously in our rationalist culture. What I mean by “more magical way of understanding” is to entertain the possibility that there may be some multi-dimensional is-ness to the more-than-human world that we haven’t learned - or have forgotten how - to perceive. And if we struggle with the concept of “magical,” it may be worth asking ourselves why.
Indigenous cultures** accepted as part of their environment, those things that couldn’t be perceived in consensus - or physical reality: faeries, gnomes, shapeshifting animals, astral beings and so on. This more supernatural approach to interfacing with the more-than-human world seems to have created a more sustainable model for the most part - whether or not one accepts these beings as “real.”
By contrast, our modern paradigm views the world in more material terms, where “lifeless” resources exist to be extracted for economic growth. This material, human-centric model has proven unsustainable. Expanded Environmentalism welcomes more magical ways alongside scientific models of interfacing with the more-than-human world. All are welcome: discarnate entities of various kinds, UFOs/UAPs and the entire high strangeness pantheon. That realm called “cyberspace,” has already accustomed us to non-physical realms. Is cyberspace, and now AI (or “emergent” intelligence), an expression of an ancient desire to interact with different planes of existence similar to our indigenous ancestors’ desire to interface with other realms?
As a society, it seems we have spent the past few hundred years valuing objectivity in the form of hard science as a measure of truth over subjectivity and the immeasurability of personal experience. Expanded Environmentalism understands that subjective and objective truths are necessary complements in a greater, meta-truth.
I wonder if the diminution of subjectivity is part of the reason we can’t seem to get a handle of solving ecological collapse. We’ve been inundated by data alerting us to the climate crisis and yet the data doesn’t seem to viscerally connect us to the the broader issue of ecosystem collapse which is caused - at least in part by - human alienation from the more-than-world.
I realize the above is a very grand and bold claim. It may or may not be measurable in an objective sense and yet it is what I intuit. I therefore invite readers to neither believe nor disbelieve this claim. But I highlight the claim as an artifact of subjective experience - my subjective experience - alongside the countless other subjective experiences that may resonate or contradict my experience - all of which should be considered in a diverse ecosystem alongside evolving objective truths.
The subjective invites the weird, the magical, the ephemeral and the unprovable while it may also allow us, on an individual level to see the more-than-human world as charged, connective and perhaps even provide a portal into realms our physical tools can’t yet detect. Entering into a state of neither believing nor disbelieving keeps us flexible and continuously open to new ways of seeing ourselves in a multi-dimensional universe. We have never been in a place as part of evolving life on Earth where we have had it figured out. Our science, religions and belief systems have never had it figured out but rather continue to evolve to incorporate new truths.
There is one thing the more-than-human world teaches us: the only constant is change.
Epilogue:
In closing, the Expanded Environmentalism concept isn’t meant to be a singular model of truth. It’s not a manifesto. Expanded Environmentalism makes no claims at being profound, original or supreme since it recognizes that it is merely part of a continuum and that we never really arrive at any ultimate apex of understanding. Expanded Environmentalism recycles and reassembles ideas from a vast ecosystem of thought in service to new and evolving ways to frame the more-than-human world. Likewise, Expanded Environmentalism invites reassemblages and mashups of its own scaffolding insofar as those reconstructions allow for fresh perspectives on our place in the more-than-human world. In this sense, Expanded Environmentalism mimics nature in that it is permeable to its surroundings while still taking an evolving form.
***
*This first half of the Expanded Environmentalism term is a nod to Gene Youngblood’s 1970 book, Expanded Cinema, which explores the evolution of cinema into new forms that incorporate emerging technologies, multimedia, and participatory experiences, arguing for the potential of audiovisual media to transform consciousness and society. The book is a seminal work in media theory and the avant-garde film movement. Essentially, for its time it was (and maybe still is today) a pretty groovy far-out book for media-curious weirdos.
** Global Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the interconnectedness of all life and the profound impact of human actions on the entire biosphere. We recognize the Indigenous peoples across the globe who have been stewards of these lands for millennia. We acknowledge their deep cultural, spiritual, and ecological connections to the Earth, connections that have been disrupted by colonization, exploitation, and environmental degradation.
We also recognize that the same forces that have impacted Indigenous communities have also had devastating effects on the flora and fauna that share our planet. The ecosystems that sustain us have been altered, and countless species have suffered and continue to suffer from habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change.
In making this acknowledgment, we commit to highlighting a variety of perspectives across cultures that promote a more rooted relationship with the Earth and all of its lifeforms.
