There is a strange denial that we're not directly affected by habitat loss, rather we externalise it as a matter of stress and loss to 'other' species, and not to ourselves. We have a delusion that as humans we are above needing nature for our own sakes. As a habitat, we 'cope' with the city but haven't yet 'adapted' to it – this is evident from the stress signals it activates in us, and which we are primed to ignore. Our quality of life would be higher with more nature. Why don't we bring more in?

We have a dysfunctional relationship with the city, it harms us but we still tolerate it, as if we didn't have a choice to change it. We need to break the trauma bond of our dysfunctional relationship with an abusive environment and let go of systems and norms which bring the comfort of familiarity but which are causing us harm.

Authors

Beth Collier

Beth ​is a Nature Allied Psychotherapist and ethnographer, teaching woodland living skills and natural history. She is Director of Wild in the City.