What's the Missing Link in Emotional Intelligence to Reduce Nature's Climate Change?

 

What’s the Missing Link in Emotional Intelligence to Reduce Nature’s Climate Change?

How is it possible that the most intellectual creature to ever walk the planet Earth is destroying its only home? – Jane Goodall

As a teacher, student of nature, and new eco-fiction writer let me try and make a case that emotional intelligence may be a missing link to help bring attention to nature’s climate change. There is no disagreement that climate change is impacting the environment and human communities in many ways and only our action can reverse its acceleration and maintain some normalcy within our biosphere. The main question is how many ways can we react to this crisis to retrain our behavior and focus on long term results with simple things we can today.

To keep things simple, I will make my case with 2 contenders:

1. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) or how to learn thoughts to understand self-awareness, logic, reasoning, creative and critical thinking and problem solving.

2. Emotional Quotient (EQ)  or how to use emotions to guide thinking, adjust and manage environments to achieve one’s goals.

There are so many reports where high degrees of intelligence are needed with backgrounds in biological and engineering sciences that would be helpful. The few scientific literate get it, but as a lay person how do I begin to understand these various topics of greenhouse effects, permafrost methane, advent of green economy, sequestration and carbon sinks, a personal carbon footprint calculator, and ecosystem integrity? What does it mean to limit global warming to less than 2ºC by reducing or capping greenhouse gas emissions?

A recent suggestion noted that the term climate change night be a marketing problem because people don’t have the long-term psychology to relate to the big picture over many years of incremental changes. They can deal concretely with personal daily changes and react within reason but how can you worry and make plans for decades from now?

The dilemma asked recently is how can we surpass intellect and appeal more to values to showcase imminent climate change.  My suggestion is to embrace emotional experiences to form long term memories but how can we do that?  Think about this: who easily forgets a story that touches your soul or a powerful movie?

Teachers know that many concepts (cognitive development) are formed based on our perceptions (visual input), our language and psychology of what is right or wrong and all the inferences in between.  The brain is uniquely organized where the emotional relay center (the amygdala) is in the middle which manages all emotions between signals from the back sensory visual cortex to the associative frontal cortex for reasoning and planning.

So, the question needs to be pondered: How can we stimulate the emotional amygdala to relate to climate changes for long term memory retention?

Quickly, here is how I changed my emotional IQ to nature versus cognitive awareness. Nature means the world to me as a living process. Seeing a bumblebee in early spring brings  feelings of joy and belonging. Nature is my friend, I will seek to respect its cycles and challenge any threats of climate change.    

In the beginning  there was a natural affinity raised on a farm within a woods by a creek and marsh where my childhood was filled with sights and sounds of Nature’s incessant activity.

Then I grew up and moved to the city to work where the practicalities of career overtook other different busy directions.  Even then, I read articles as many people do, but who had time to worry about species becoming extinct or warmer temperatures as long as our lifestyles remained normal.  

Then I retired and returned to my roots in the country to the splendor of my mountain valley when I started my pursuit of writing about nature. A deeper emotion started to develop with more research even at a basic level of understanding.  There were so many ecosystems, alive and  functioning well at four levels of interaction, each particular to its species and surroundings all encompassed by the subject called ecology. The ecological principles were the most profound too important not to share. If Nature could have all living things work together, without ego, with adaptations, in great diversity, even democracy, why couldn’t human societies learn some principles to also survive in balance?

This was not a lesson plan but a job for imagination to personify Nature as a living thing with feelings, connections, fears and hopes.  Nature’s first-person narrative could foster more emotions, to correlate the unexpected with the science and personalize new experiences with the reader. The emotions would undoubtedly beget friendships with fascinating ecological characters each with an important role to play.

Perhaps  good storytelling with imagination based on science would help children and others to become more curious about the significance of the Big Picture of Nature working its splendid synergy. Even better yet, a movie with sights, sounds and music would stimulate the amygdala for many years of  thoughtful recollection. 

What if you could share the emotions of a water sprite on his water cycle journey as he discovers other cycles to maintain live on Earth?

What if a tree could talk about his spirit, families, communities, future and sad interaction with humans and his succession long after he falls?

In conclusion, how do you develop emotional intelligence for cognitive bonding … I believe the missing link may be found in one's vibrant imagination discovering the wonders of the ecosystem. Even Albert Einstein once said: 

 "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

Do you have any emotional encounters with Nature that you think about again and again that give you peace of mind and reflection? 

Comments are always appreciated. Please leave a convenient time to chat 833 471 4661 

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

PS: In the spirit of believing that the Universe receives what is put into it, please note this blog: In Praise of Walt Disney’s Nature Advocacy and What May Be Missing with 4 Questions

Nature's World Cries Out for More Eco-Fiction Writers to Save Our Planet

 

Nature's World Cries Out for More Eco-Fiction Writers to Save Our Planet

"To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known…On a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." Carl Sagan

Ecology entered a broader cultural attitude in the 1960's and 1970's when people became more interested in natural environmental issues and species within human connections.

A variety of eco-fiction literature developed many branches and styles to be found in many genres such as mainstream, westerns, mystery, romance, realism, science fiction and fantasy.

This collaborative genre could be any fictional landscape that was based on ecological principles which became the setting, the plot and the theme of the story. The nebulae of Nature from the smallest cells to the largest lifeforms became alive as talking, feeling characters with human attributes and emotions. Their message was to set the right standards of respecting natural order, conservation and sustainability.

So what kind of ecological principles can be embedded into eco-fiction story? 

You can talk about Nature in terms of redundancy without ego, diversity with connections, and adaptations for survival. You can express amazement at nature’s master plan of organization from the nematodes to the nimbus clouds. Without this two-hydrogen-one-oxygen molecule, any Earth life process wouldn’t exist.  You can talk about responsibility to common goals, a democratic pattern of individualism and cooperation played out in ecological terms. What about the human factors of intervention, exploration or exploitation?   

In fact, you can become more specific and talk about the reality of 4 levels in an ecosystem with plants and animals you see; but you must also involve nonliving elements (air and water) and microorganisms. Microorganisms include the bacteria, algae, fungi, and protozoa that are usually seen only with a microscope, but they must not be ignored because of their vital roles in decomposition, oxygen production and symbiotic relationships with plants so they can grow to serve as food for animals and humans.

For example, nitrogen gas (N2) makes up 80% of the Earth’s atmosphere and is one of the primary nutrients critical for the survival of all living organisms. It is required for DNA, proteins and chlorophyll. But nitrogen gas is largely inaccessible to most organisms, and must be converted into ammonia (NH3) and nitrates (NH4) before it can be used by plants as food.

Enter the nitrifying bacteria which transform nitrogen into an oxidative state for plant roots  to absorb...the essential nitrification cycle.

Now, on one hand, you can read a complex scientific treatise about this transformation or you can meet a nitrifying bacteria who explains his actions and his roles in the ecosystem. Fiction, yes, but science based as well with far reaching implications.

Or, you can read a scientific volume or two about the carbon cycle and how carbon compounds can make a series of conversions in the environment, from incorporating carbon dioxide gas into living plant cells by photosynthesis, and returning as a gas through respiration, or decaying dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels. 

Or, your story line can introduce a hydrocarbon molecule composed from the elements carbon and hydrogen who can explain his role from coal and crude oil to making natural gas, plastics, pesticides, even cosmetics and medicines.  His experience shows how the burning of hydrocarbons produces greenhouse gases which in turn depletes the ozone layer and cause climate change. Fictional character simplified, yes, but with a huge convoluted impact on the environment and ecosystems.

In summary, we need more eco-fiction stories that can talk about the relationship between natural settings and human communities.

 Their characters need to inhabit an ecosystem based on ecological principles that call attention to act responsibly to be good ethical stewards of the Earth. 

They need to share the reality of microorganisms, photosynthesis, food webs, carbon dominance, pollution, and changing weather patterns as first-person experiences. 

We must hear their joys, fears and hopes. We must pay heed to their warnings of dangers and not ignore their messages.

Also, most importantly, we need stories that show what happens when anti-ecological principles are followed; such as, believing the only bond to nature is based on cash exchanges or using nature’s bounty as individual gifts, not for common purpose. There are ecological threats everywhere from tropical forest to coral reefs to extinction of animals, once gone, forever.

People need more first-hand stories about global warming, culture diaspora, survival of the weakest links, advocacy to protect our unique natural world and create a mythology we are all connected…what happens to one of us, happens to all of us.

It’s strange to say that the term eco-fiction has never been a media sensation and therefore has not become “com-modified or capitalizable, lending to its wildness.” 

Maybe its time to change that to help save our planet.

What kind of nature story would you like to hear or write? What are your fears about our planet?

Comments and questions are always appreciated. Please leave a message for a time to chat...1 833 471 4661

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

PS: Interested in writing a paper about eco-fiction, or even teaching it? Check resources here. 

Note this blog about Disney making a movie based on an eco-fiction character and story line ... in fact, the most important superhero essential to our planet's survival.

 

 

Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

“And when you don’t understand how webs connect; or how roots make leaves; or how the food web is many links that can’t be broken;  when you lack empathy for the most ordinary creature, the worm or the bee, you become disconnected and pay the price one way of another, too often with disorder and disease.”

...excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Animals don’t talk but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have voices or feelings. You may think that trees don’t communicate but it doesn’t mean they don’t belong to their community and environment.  In fact, a tree is a perfect member of a community that shows that  a body is an assembly of species and relationships, never self-contained. 

Nature starts with a single cell growing to more complexity where each part has a purpose. We can best survive as a whole society if we believe in diversity and cooperation.

A tree can teach that we are an ecosystem in our own rights. 

This story is about a young birch tree called Birchum Birch.  A special tree Dryad, as the essence of knowledge, explains many of his experiences about his home, his biology, environmental co-operation and Nature’s most important law that everything is connected. They share experiences about weather, climate changes, value of humus, seeds, insects, fungal dangers, adaptations and interact with various animals providing shelter and food who, in turn, reciprocate help in times of problems.

However, when he encounters People, he realizes how big ego and short-term thinking can impact a community’s lifetime, with the hope that Nature can recover given a chance. After her travels, the dryad discusses giant food webs from Nature's primary perspective and people’s secondary processes in 'Mega Plants' and 'Mega Malls,' along with manufactured seeds, that try to alter the essence of life on Earth.  

A simple question asked, "Is how do you grow a can of food?"

A loud clarion call is heard throughout the story that the Universe is not outside you …

 “what’s good for each of us is good for all of us; what hurts one of us, hurts all of us.”  

The theme of the story revolves around ecological succession which is the process of gradual change that involves the whole community over time. It is based on order that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. 

The social extension is that any change is dynamic and like Nature, nothing is ever black and white. Between any two extremes there is a gradual change which means greater tolerance to accept changes over time.  People must learn tolerance as they adapt to conditions to help their communities to succeed through a cooperative social succession.

An interesting symbol is the cocoon with an open question about what kind of transformation happens in order for adults to survive in a consumer-based business environment.

The moral like a web spins out that a solitary birch tree can represent the essential connections between our  healthy Planet and balancing Self through cycles, cooperation, unity and appreciation of the wonder of Nature because  once gone it can’t be replaced.

As a retired teacher who values education and process, the author continues to be so impressed by Mother Nature and so passionate to use her voice to speak on her behalf to help protect the environment for future generations. Her wisdom or mantra have only grown stronger that the more you learn about Mother Nature, the more you will also be impressed about her abilities, integrity and appreciate the need for a relationship with Nature as a friend and partner.

You wouldn’t bully or hurt a friend, would you?   

Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

Download Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch   

See Ecology on menu ...scroll down

Kindle e-book: 

Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

Annemarie
amarie10@gmail.com
1 833 471 4661 (leave message for best time to call back
https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com 

Most Common Question Asked about the Incredible Journey of The Water Sprite with Plant Roots

Most Common Question Asked about the Incredible Journey of The Water Sprite with Plant Roots

“We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that. Surely we all have a responsibility to care for our Blue Planet. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us.”

“I know of no pleasure deeper than that which comes from contemplating the natural world and trying to understand it.”

― David Attenborough

There is no question that there is abundant interest in key words like save water, water cycles, balance in ecology, water pollution, climate changes, and natural cycles.

People who care to talk, ask a common question: Is this just a fancy way of describing the water cycle...we already know about that.

No, I refer them to look at the Table of Contents that shows this journey is so much more than one taken on the wind to runoff back to the ocean. It is a journey worthy of a heroic movie of acceptance and survival. 

This story delves deep into the systems that sustain life on earth, their interdependence and mutual survival from the microorganism to the cells of plants to the sun’s energy itself. 

Constrain or lose one part, upset the entire planet's cycles. 

It’s true that there are a few fascinating, imaginary creations that hold a scientific base in their particular system like glaciers, oil lakes, and plastic manufacturing factories.

 

The moral is implied that simple life forms within communities have a serious purpose with the right to exist and maintain potential of all ecosystems. Within diversity is found democracy.  

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1     Meet Water Sprite; the Water Spirit; Mission of Cyclical Truths

CHAPTER 2     Caught in Winter Storm; Severe Danger; First Encystment

CHAPTER 3     Learns about Kalundian Glacier; ice-sprites; climate emergency 

CHAPTER 4     Undergoes an operation to save the Ice Princess legacy; glacial lake

CHAPTER 5     Capture by Nitrifying Bacteria for Ransom; Nitrogen Cycle

CHAPTER 6     Helps to Find a Habitat for Bacteria; reaches Bally Pond

CHAPTER 7     Attack by Amoeba; Rescue by a Rotifer called Roti Tellera

CHAPTER 8     Interacts with community; meets Hydra; goes to school with Hydrozoan

CHAPTER 9     Learns from Stentor; threat of pollution arrives; weapon against humankinds

CHAPTER 10   Discuss plan to stop possible pollution; leaves Bally Pond on a mission

CHAPTER 11   Encounter with first young female humankind; meets her father scientist

CHAPTER 12   Examination under a microscope; exposure to microbes; possible escape

CHAPTER 13   Swallowed  into digestive system; exits human body through sweat gland

CHAPTER 14   Filters down to bedrock; meets an Oiler molecule on a mission

CHAPTER 15   Meets Progenitor, oldest life form; Earth's elements; Carbon Cycle

CHAPTER 16   Oil well disaster; hydrocarbon processing into plastics; meets Polymer

CHAPTER 17   Encounter with a tree; hopeful return and re-connection at Bally Pond

CHAPTER 18   Pollution Disaster; Extinction; Attack and Impossible Plastic Savior  

CHAPTER 19;  Reflection on Lessons Learned; Cyclical Truths Mission Accomplished 

CHAPTER 20   Return to Mother Ocean with Cautionary Words on the Wind

As you can, this is far more than a diagram of a water cycle, crucial as that is. It is one diagram near the end of the journey filled with many previous other diagrams that explain how organisms at all  levels of the ecosystems help to sustain each other. 

What are some of the lessons to be learned?

Stop and be amazed at the specialized simplicity and complexity of life forms, especially the micro-organisms that live in fresh water which may be labeled only as a handful of living cells but with the ability to sense, feed and propagate.

Become aware of Organic Life forms or compounds containing the carbon molecule, the most common life matter and compound on Earth including the hydrocarbon found in fossil fuel and inert manufactured plastics.

Start to appreciate the numerous cycles required for ecology to be balanced from sun and water, to nutrients for primary plants, to animals and decomposing bacteria in both a inclusive, co-operative and limited biosphere. 

There is a strong link to an ECOLOGY ETHIC where exponential growth is not possible.

Do you agree this journey is far beyond the water cycle and worthy of an epic movie!

Check out the Table of Contents and more.

I appreciate hearing your thoughts about the different experiences and lessons learned.

Sincerely, 

Annemarie

info@helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

I am deep in thought now; not so much about the physical reality around that can be seen and heard; but deeper into more abstract concepts that deal with wisdom and spirit, a more ethical domain. Maybe thinking is a cycle unto itself that governs our choices and how we behave. If we change our thinking, we can perhaps change our habits. If we gain knowledge, we will be more understanding. If we understand more, then we will appreciate more the intricate workings of Nature; like being awed by the mechanics of a single leaf. If we are smarter, then we will appreciate the balance designed by Nature. (excerpt from The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots.)

Water Sprite enjoying snack time with his rotifer friend