Harmony with Nature generates about 22 million Google results. Harmony in Nature, on the other hand gets around 125 million. Make of that what you can. Each phrase is problematic: the first is wishful thinking dressed as political theory; the second is myth dressed as ecology. Prince Charles has written a book about the former, and the UN has a site devoted to it, attempting to set out some shaky principles,
Under the leadership of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, inter-governmental negotiations began in 2009 to agree on principles of Harmony with Nature. Adopting by consensus the Bolivian-led Resolution, on 22 April 2009 the General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day. In so doing, Governments acknowledged that the Earth and its ecosystems are our home, and expressed its conviction that it is necessary to promote harmony with nature in order to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations.
As Steve Gough reminded us in his recent I-SEE seminar, this is a one-sided contract. Humans may want to sign up, but "nature" cannot, and would not, even were it possible, as John Race's verse illustrates ...
I’ve no doctrinal preference for Green.
I don’t love dolphins any more than rats,
Though I’m offended by large block of flats,
And troubled by the stink of kerosene.
And as to whether I should intervene …
I hold no brief for rare, endangered cats;
As far as I’m concerned, let horseshoe bats
Follow the creatures of the Eocene.
Having said that, I’m fond of modern man,
Enthusiastic agent of my plan
For him to self-destruct and leave the Earth
As harmonious, as at his birth.
Nature is supremely indifferent to us, to our hopes and dreams, our vanities and foibles, and our hubris. Why is this so hard to learn?
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