The Nature Principle

Noise pollution affects us in ways we aren’t necessarily cognizant of, while others are acutely aware of its effects. One gardener wears noise-canceling headphones because of the car alarms and leaf blowers in her neighborhood. Noise pollution can affect sleep patterns, blood pressure and brain chemistry, reproductive success, and the survival of sea life. Some communities are creating trade-in programs to replace gas powered lawnmowers and leaf-blowers with electric ones. Louv calls for action to create silence sanctuaries and anti-noise campaigns.

Light pollution is causing sky blindness, a separation from, and unawareness of, the dark sky and constellations. Humans are constantly subjected to artificial light, and its absence, according to Louv, is important. Light pollution and working night shifts are suspected to have carcinogenic effects. Still, not all researchers are convinced that studying the stars is natural, and they suggest that we evolved to not look upwards. 

Green architecture can help promote productivity in the workplace and reduce absenteeism. “Sick building syndrome” can be avoided by having natural ventilation, indoor plants, natural lighting, outdoor views, outdoor meetings, and garden venues. There are architects and planners that are using nature as inspiration for more natural buildings, which, in addition to being better for workers, also helps to conserve energy.

Natural design is also a way of using universal design, which considers people who have varying degrees of mobility: “As a philosophy, universal design acknowledges that the best design encompasses the full human community” (189). Louv takes this philosophy one step further with “universe design,” which takes into consideration humans and animals into the design process. Biomimicry, or the idea that “all human inventions have already appeared in nature” (189), is appearing more in architecture. For example, the award-winning designer of a shopping complex in Zimbabwe was inspired by termite mounds to design an air-flow system that conserved energy and was cost effective.

Getting business and the marketplace interested in universal design or biomimicry is important for creating a sustainable future and has proven to be good for business. Technology that allows people to become closer to nature, such as cameras and other gadgets, is big business. Louv has an idea for a gadget that would connect people to nature: a toy gun with a digital camera: “Point this device at a bird and click, and the image is immediately sent to your own Web-based life list, and to a Web site that maps and tracks species migrations and sightings” (194). Creative products such as this could be a big market for our future naturalists that have grown up with technology. If we start thinking with an entrepreneurial and business-savvy mind, we can create “nature-smart businesses” that add to our connection with nature. 

While our initial reaction to finding nature might evoke images of national parks and wilderness, urban areas also provide nature refuge. Louv posits that to have a sustainable connection with nature, we need to incorporate nature into our suburban and urban areas, which he calls a “natural urban renewal movement” (199). He suggests that public policy offer incentives to cities for building “eco villages.”

Louv gives recommendations for public land planning that would enhance and restore our connection to the natural environment. From green roofs and solar collectors to raised beds in abandoned lots, his recommendations include large changes at the public policy level and small changes in local neighborhoods.

One non-profit organization, The Greening of Detroit, is working to restore trees and gardens in local communities. These small changes at the local level have helped to create major change higher up when it comes to creating jobs, connecting people, and conserving land for public parks. An additional benefit of the greening movement is food production, with community and urban gardens producing “significant amounts of food.” Land conservation isn’t without its controversies, with gentrification pushing out residents when green space increases property value and neighbors disagreeing on how to use public land.

Louv proposes “De-Central Park,” in which small green areas are stitched together and preserved to create a string of public green space. By stitching together button parks or pocket parks, “[t]he central organizing principle of nearby-nature trusts would be do it yourself, do it now, with a little help and information from friends who might know about land trusts” (212). By revitalizing cities, local municipalities have worked to bring back wildlife, increase tourism and property value. While some view wildlife as a risk to humans, many view wildlife as a significantly small threat for a large return of the natural environment, and Louv believes that much of the threat could be avoided with “wisely designed development patterns” (217). 

Steve Nygren, a restaurateur in Atlanta, Georgia, has had a large impact on land conservation in the surrounding area. After seeing the benefits to his family spending the weekends on their family acreage in the countryside, they moved there permanently and took up land conservation. Nygren finances the local community called Serenbe, which lobbies for land preservation and creating a country community of gardens, water conservation, and simple outdoor living.

Nygren’s is an extreme example of one citizen spending his life to conserve and preserve our natural world and working to find a way for humans to live in harmony with it. While there are some critics of this way of life, as the purveyors are automobile dependent and able to afford it, there is no doubt that a different type of land planning is needed for our future. One interesting land planning policy that Louv presents is going to non-traditional burials, by using green burials in public land, this would ensure that the land would not be rezoned into parking lots.

Urban traffic planning plays a role in building eco-cities as well, with bicycles and foot traffic helping to connect pedestrians to the local environment. Louv points out that while new neighborhoods like Serenbe are important, it’s “the re-naturing of existing neighborhoods” and “the creation of restorative transportation” (231) that’s needed. Regeneration of creativity, green space and walkability would do wonders to our current communities.