the empathy is not there. So long has our civ been seperate from from the natural world is refuses to acknowledge any connection with it.
Yeah, putting forward the idea, especially about plants, but to a lesser extent, about animals, that they are just as important as us definitely gets weird looks. People just don’t usually connect with animals or plants and empathize with them in the way that they do with humans.
yes the empathy is not there. Even in discussion trying to convey in a way most can understand, sometimes involves anthromorphic qualitys to the subject. It is human nature to anthromorphize elements of nature, IE the greek deity patheons, or giving a human fatherly face to the christian god. Is it just in modern times we have lost our empathy with the natural world? A product of the industrial age?
In order to re-connect to Nature I tend to head for the woods, sit beneath a tree that has “touched” me in some way, close my eyes and open myself up.
Does wonders for my harried day-to-day existence.