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🇮🇩 Indonesia /Health & Science

Why Humans Only Panic When Nature Retaliates

From Republika · (7m ago) Indonesian Critical tone

Translated from Indonesian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • Environmental disasters like floods and landslides are often the result of human actions, not just natural occurrences.
  • Human activities such as deforestation, pollution, and illegal mining damage ecosystems long before natural disasters strike.
  • A lack of emotional connection to nature leads to exploitation, while a sense of 'place attachment' fosters responsibility for environmental care.

The article 'Why Do Humans Only Panic When Nature Retaliates?' by Suryanto, a Professor of Social Psychology at Universitas Airlangga, critically examines humanity's delayed response to environmental crises. Suryanto argues that events like floods, landslides, and extreme heat are not merely 'natural disasters' but are often the predictable consequences of human actions that precede them.

We often call floods, landslides, extreme heat, and damaged food sources natural disasters. However, these disasters are often born long before the rain falls or the temperature soars.

— SuryantoIntroducing the argument that environmental disasters are human-induced.

He points to widespread environmental degradation—deforested slopes, encroached protected areas, polluted rivers, and overexploited forests—as the root causes. Examples from Indonesia, such as illegal sand mining damaging Mount Merapi's national park and illegal palm oil plantations in protected areas of North Sumatra, illustrate a pattern of relentless exploitation. Suryanto contends that humans extract from the earth without pause, only to react with fear when the planet inevitably responds.

The pattern is the same: humans take from the earth without pause, then tremble when the earth returns the consequences.

— SuryantoDescribing the cycle of exploitation and reaction to environmental damage.

The piece further delves into the psychological aspect, referencing environmental psychology's concept of 'place attachment.' This theory suggests that a deep emotional bond with one's environment—be it a village, river, or forest—cultivates a sense of responsibility for its preservation. Conversely, viewing the earth merely as a commodity fosters exploitative behavior. Suryanto concludes that the current environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of relationships, marked by a loss of emotional connection to nature, leading to its treatment as a mere cost-benefit calculation. He warns that continuing on this path will result in a hotter, more fragile, and unjust future, particularly for vulnerable populations, while also referencing Islamic teachings that caution against causing destruction on Earth.

Environmental crises are essentially crises of relationships: humans lose emotional closeness with nature, then treat it merely as an object of profit and loss.

— SuryantoExplaining the psychological roots of environmental exploitation.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Republika in Indonesian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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