This feels like only the barest of beginnings. The project at hand is nothing less than the redefinition of our relationship to nature. The communication of the vague via the specific. The illustration of a relationship which is at once universal and individual.
What is that relationship now? Even this is not clear.
We attempt to start with the tools we know. Different stories suggest different relationships.
Imagine a sphere encompassing all things natural and a second sphere encompassing all things human. What is the relationship between the spheres? Are they adjacent? Overlapping? Is one entirely within the other? Do they occupy the same space?
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The far reaches of the sphere of nature embody a real, radical otherness. Nature can be profoundly unhuman. Birds communicating with one another don't care so much about the sound recordist in their midst. The hurricane is not thinking about the Gross National Product.
How do we deal with this otherness? What are we doing to the world around us? What is the world doing to us? Are we altering each other beyond recognition? Or is that how we come to recognize each other? This possibility is impossible to measure.
What is clear is that we must begin to explore these questions. Our lives depend on it. The quest is not so much about policy as about spirit. We must change ourselves to change the world.