Can we afford nature?

As everyone is, we are thinking about the economy every day at Tanglewood. Not-for-profts in particular worry because we rely on donations to function. When times get tough, something has to go. What people choose to cut out of their lives is personal, yet we always hope that nature and education about our natural world isn't something people think is expendible.

Nature is part of us and we need a healthy planet to survive. It is not something that we can do without like our daily latte or a new purse. You should have learned in your basic biology course that, since humans are animals, we rely on our environment for survival. We need clean air and water, safe food and space. If we are too close (overpopulated) we get stressed, which can lead to all kinds of uncivilized behaviors like murder and other violent acts toward each other. We also have increased diseases and disease-spread as well as increased pollution and resource depletion with overpopulation. All of this can be tempered, even with our growing population, if we are educated.

Nature also gives us something nothing else can- a place to escape. I don't know of a single person (unless you have some specific outdoor phobia) that doesn't just FEEL BETTER when they get outside into real nature. Where things are quiet and slow and look and smell better than our indoor environments. Where other living things are moving about and doing their thing, with no help from us. Hard to believe in our humancentric lives that there are things that go about their every day without needing us at all, but nature doesn't need us. We need nature.

Because we are animals, we need to remember our roots and remember we are a part of this Earth. We can't survive without a healthy Earth. So please don't stop giving to places that preserve nature and teach the community about preservation. Places that work to remind all of us that we can't afford to cut the Earth from our budgets because we will be cutting ourselves out ultimately and that isn't wise.