Climate Change and its Impact on Human-Nature Relationship

Whether it is caused by deforestation, increase in the Earth’s temperatures, or a decrease in water supply, the world’s climate is always changing. Humankind’s romanticized views of nature are currently being distorted. Instead of driving up to the mountains to see lush forests and deep lakes, we see vast patches of trees burnt to ashes and dwindling water levels turning lakes into ponds. Through the stories from I’m with the Bears, nature is described post- human environmental destruction. The relationship between nature and humankind is slowly deteriorating until there is no more of nature left to share.

In Sacred Space by Kim Stanley Robinson, Charlie goes on backpacking trips every summer in the Sierra Nevada. It is a way of reconnecting

In the story, California claimed the water and only the higher class citizens have complete access. That leaves a large part of the population lacking enough water to survive. Even towns that used to be wealthy with golf course country clubs and large homes are abandoned for the search of fresh, usable water. This shows, through climate change, people are being displaced from their homes. No longer do they have adequate supplies to live in their home or town; overexploitation has stripped that. Nature in this sense is within the community ties. This realist story imagines nature in the near present because droughts and overconsumption of water are shown in our society today. Nature is prone to vast changes; even the increase of one degree in temperature could affect a whole

It’s a dirt road, a logging road, in fact, but Tyrone Tierwater wouldn’t want to call it a road. He’d call it a scar, a gash, an open wound in the body corporal of the forest… In daylight, trucks pound over it, big D7 Cats, loaders, wood-chippers. It’s a road. (7)

To humans, nature is often seen as wild and unknown. In turn, humans interfere and attempt to conquer nature, making it less rural, less wild, and more tame. This makes nature more catered towards human’s needs, what we are used to. To nature, this is a disrupter. Deforestation causes the loss of habitats for millions of species, even those not discovered yet, as well as the acceleration of climate change. Removing the trees leads to temperature shifts, a lack of moisture in the atmosphere, and increased greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. Because of this, nature should be left natural, to cycle