Emerging Alliances for the Earth Community
By Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 67:3
April 23, 2025
In 2017, the Museum of Natural History in Paris issued a manifesto, arguing that the environmental crisis demanded a new attentiveness toward the place of humanity within nature, and the responsibilities that this entailed. “Grounding human beings in nature,” it was argued, allowed us to see ourselves as “active agents within, and also as victims of, the transformation of nature that we ourselves have brought about.” Those themes are not new, nor can they be detached from deeper and broader questions once engaged by natural philosophy. We need a holistic view of nature if we are to engage such questions about the natural world in their full complexity, and develop responsible answers and strategies in the light of the challenges we face.