Ecological imagination shrinks with the land’s impoverishment

Evidence

As the land becomes impoverished, so too does the scope of their vision. When we talked about this after class, I realized that they could not even imagine what beneficial relations between their species and others might look like. How can we begin to move toward ecological and cultural sustainability if we cannot even imagine what the path feels like? If we can’t imagine the generosity of geese? These students were not raised on the story of Skywoman. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 34

Categorization

• XREF: The land-vision causal claim echoes the soundscape thread — keynote sounds vanish unnoticed until changed — imagination depends on what the senses are given. — connects to: Living in constructed urban environments severs people from ecological consequences; Old-growth cultures can regenerate from land memory like forests do — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1079; Humans have lost the capacity to foresee and forestall damage — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2549 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Old-growth cultures can regenerate from land memory like forests do #corroborates (0.73) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1079
• Living in constructed urban environments severs people from ecological consequences #corroborates (0.72)
• Humans have lost the capacity to foresee and forestall damage #corroborates (0.70) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2549