Of course, we’re being deliberately provocative but it’s to crudely illustrate that the stories told about who loves nature and what love looks like, are seriously powerful. 

It’s a serious topic because our influence on our biosphere is now so absolute, that what we choose to do over the next couple of decades will determine the future of all life on Earth, not just ours. And at the moment, nowhere nearly enough of us include nature in the story we tell ourselves of who we are and our place in the world. If we did, we’d be pushing to do things very differently.   

So what’s the problem? Currently, and especially in the West, we’ve set high thresholds to earn the right to call ourselves a nature lover. The rituals and symbols that we’ve created, are sending strong signals about who belongs to a ‘nature loving’ tribe and who doesn’t. Nature lovers, often with the privilege of time, money and knowledge, have accidentally created barriers that prevent a majority of people telling themselves that they care about nature and that their relationship with nature is good enough.

To win more support for nature, we need to start tearing down these barriers. 

We need to break free of controlling and limiting definitions of love for nature. And understand that, like love between people, there are infinite variations and that all are valid if they don’t cause harm to others. 

Widening our definition of love for nature means including; our investigations that have provided medical breakthroughs, inspiration for innovation, sustainable food production, renewable energy and much more. It’s also about legitimising and celebrating those millions of tiny moments of magic in nature from when you warm in the sun while standing outside the office or the smile from seeing pigeons in a sex squabble on a telephone wire. 

Changing the stories we tell ourselves about our connection to life on the planet must start with making room for different types of love.