Why We Need To Care About Nature As Much As We Do Other People With Steven Kotler

Most of the issues we face today revolve around protecting and saving human lives — from the pandemic to climate change, and even poverty. Have you ever stopped to think about the bigger picture? What about the environment and animals? Caring more about nature will bring us a step closer to solving environmental challenges and, to an extent, many of the dangers to human lives.

In this episode, Steven Kotler joins us to talk about empathy and the environment in time for the release of his latest novel, The Devil’s Dictionary. He shares how empathy plays an important part in environmental change and how we need to expand our understanding on how to care about nature. Steven also shares ways we can help others develop their ecological awareness. 

Don’t miss this episode and learn how you can take care of the environment better!

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode: 

  1. Hear about Steven’s new novel, The Devil’s Dictionary, and its themes surrounding environment and empathy. 

  2. Understand why we need to stay hopeful even if environmental challenges seem difficult to overcome.

  3. Learn Steven’s practical tips for dealing with people who do not have ecological awareness. 

Resources

    Episode Highlights

    [00:50] About The Devil’s Dictionary

    • If you’re not familiar with Steven Kotler, The Devil’s Dictionary is a good standalone introduction to him. It’s a companion piece to The Last Tango, his previous novel. 

    • Steven read several books about the world facing an environmental apocalypse. Most of these books fail to think about solutions to environmental challenges.

    • He wanted to write a book about a world where these environmental challenges are solved and how it would change our lives, how we feel empathy, and create social challenges. 

    • He also explored the concept of mega linkages, where animals are protected in places like parks connected by a web of migration corridors.

    [11:05] Why We Need Empathy

    • We need empathy to solve environmental challenges. Our feelings of empathy should include people, plants, animals, and ecosystems.

    • Nature-relatedness or ecological awareness is our ability to perceive and care about nature.

    • We can expand our ecological awareness by entering into a state of flow, during meditation practices, and even with psychedelics.

    • When nature-relatedness expands, environmental activism also increases.

    • Steven’s flow research collective helps train people to be more empathetic, thus increasing nature-relatedness over time.

    [11:57] “Empathy extends our sphere of caring. That's the big deal here, if we're going to save ecosystems [and] environments, we have to start caring about forests the way we feel about friends and family. And oceans the way we feel about our drives. And to really care about this stuff as we care about ourselves. That's sort of what is going to take.” - Click Here To Tweet This

    [15:39] Why Steven Wrote Abundance

    • Steven co-wrote the book Abundance with Peter Diamandis because he wanted to help more animals and help more people who want to help animals.

    • Steven believes we need to focus on creating mega linkages. Since these require land, he recommends linking things together, like skyscrapers and vertical farms, to liberate the land.

    • Despite writing about mega linkages in Abundance, Steven observed that people didn’t really understand them. Thus, he wrote The Devil’s Dictionary to show people what they can look like.

    [21:34] We Need to Stay Hopeful

    • The world is very exciting. The COVID-19 pandemic alone showed how fast the healthcare industry can reach breakthroughs.

    • The same AI technology now being developed in healthcare can be used in agriculture.

    • A trillion dollars have been invested in green energy, and its adoption rates are high.

    • Companies are now including environmental goals as part of their corporate social responsibilities.

    • Recently, we’ve seen the population rebound of the Iberian lynx and the monarch butterflies, both of which were nearing extinction.

    [21:40] “The world is very exciting right now. Just put it that way. There's a lot to look at and pay attention to. COVID, for example, gave us amazing, massive breakthroughs, not just for the vaccines…the AI in healthcare, the new health [movement].”  - Click Here To Tweet This

    [26:26] How Humans Decide Who Deserves Rights

    • Even if there is promising progress to address environmental challenges, it’s important to remember why these challenges came about in the first place. 

    • Humans have stolen all the food and land from the other species. 

    • Steven shares how animal shelters in America alone euthanize around 8 million dogs annually. This decision is based on arbitrary criteria. 

    • Dogs have the same core emotions as humans and are even better at social emotions. Dogs are like 3- to 4-year-old humans.

    • The study on plant neuroscience is growing, and it’s found how plants exhibit altruism and communicate. We need to start examining our criteria for rights.

    [26:32] “One species has stolen all the food. What happened — we stole the land and we stole the food. We said, ‘we deserve it more than all of you’, and we took it away. I don't know how you can come to that conclusion anymore. [On] what criteria are you saying we deserve it?” - Click Here To Tweet This

    [30:42] Steven’s Two Practical Tips

    [31:57] “I try to meet people where they are and have the conversation, I don't have to win, I’ve just got to plant a handful of seeds and have you think about it. If you think people are fundamentally good, and if I can get them to expand their sphere of caring a little bit, just a little bit farther, they're going to start coming to some interesting conclusions on their own.” - Click Here To Tweet This

    • If you meet someone with a low level of nature-relatedness, Steven recommends being a good communicator.

    • You don’t need to win arguments about environmental concerns; you just need to open people to ideas.

    • He recommends loving kindness meditation, especially when you meet people who directly go against your beliefs.

    • The practice of loving kindness meditation and flow requires self-awareness. 

    • Self-awareness is being able to keep cognitive biases and fears out of the way so that you’re able to see who you really are. 

    [37:14] “There's the new cutting edge on the neuroscience of meditation. If you're training people in flow over time, or performance… self-awareness is sort of mandatory. And that real self-awareness means…keep[ing] your cognitive biases out of the way, your fears out of the way, and get your habitual behavior out of the way and at least be able to see who you are.” - Click Here To Tweet This

    [45:47] How Steven Feels Radically Loved

    • Steven shares he feels radically loved during animal encounters. 

    • He was recently hiking with his dog when he heard an animal fly so fast it seemed to break the sound barrier. 

    About Steven

    Steven Kotler is one of the leading experts in the study of human performance. He’s written several New York Times-bestselling books and was nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes for his journalistic work.

    He is also the co-founder of the Rancho de Chihuahua dog sanctuary and a co-host of the top-rated iTunes podcast Flow Research Collective Radio. If you want to connect with Steven, visit his website or LinkedIn.

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    To feeling radically loved,

    Rosie

    Rosie AcostaMindfulness Teacher, BIPOC Meditation, BIPOC Meditation Teacher, BIPOC Mindfulness Teacher, First Gen Mexican American