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Urban Consumers andNatural Resources: An
Ontology of Disconnection
D D. S
INTRODUCTION

The reality of a globalized world is that our lifestyles affect peoples
and communities in far-off places. This is the case with extracting natural
resources—particularly non-renewable materials like aluminum, copper,
petroleum, and gold—to manufacture goods. Every consumer object isembedded with natural resources. The average desktop computer, forexample, is manufactured using 1.8 tons of raw materials, while production requires an additional 240 kg of fossil fuels and 1,500 kg of water.1
The process of extraction causes not only environmental impacts but also
disruptions in local communities. Residents there may receive limited
benefits from the sale of their resources while suffering from pollution,
disrupted livelihoods or, in extreme cases, even displacement.
Due to urban lifestyles and their effect on the environment, it isimportant to consider the influence of urbanization in this process. Cities
are home to most people, and make up the great majority of economic
output, while requiring resources from oft-distant locations. As Brondizio
et al. explain, we need “better understandings of connections between
David D. Sussman is an Associate Professor in the Department of International
Studies at Tokai University, and a Fellow at the Institute for Global Environmental
Strategies (IGES). As a scholar-practitioner, his current research examines global
interconnectivity, linking consumers’ use of material resources to the environmental
and social impacts in communities where they are sourced. At Tufts University, David
served as a Visiting Scholar at the Global Development And Environment Institute(GDAE) and taught undergraduate courses on natural resource conflicts and forced
migration. David earned his B.A from Dartmouth College, and M.A. and Ph.D.
degrees from The Fletcher School, Tufts University.

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distant drivers affecting demand for agricultural land, terrestrial, mineral,marine, water, energy resources, and how their nexuses place burdens on
different regions and sectors of society.”2 This article attempts to fill thisconceptual gap between cities and nature by presenting the argument thatdeepening urbanization increases the disconnect between consumers andthe impacts that their lifestyles have on the environment. It examines thisthrough several theories related to disconnection and suggests that a potential solution can be found in the form of “spatial justice,” achieved throughthe lens of “environmental justice.”
BACKGROUND: CAPITALISM AND OUR DISCONNECT FROM NATURE

There is a link between economic systems and consumer habits, but
present-day capitalism is particularly adept at spurring the increased useof materials and resources. Ongoing globalization—deeply intertwinedwith consumerism—facilitates greater interconnection worldwide, making
economies more integrated while their extended value and supply chainsdraw resources from far away. In an increasingly interconnected world,
the reality is that “small actions at a local scale can add up to positive or
negative impacts at a regional or global scale that affect distant areas at anincreasingly rapid pace.”3
There are clear connections between capitalism, consumption,
resource use, and associated environmental effects. Analysis shows that “asignificant proportionality between consumption and impact exists for alarge range of environmental, resource and social indicators.”4 As Benett
and O’Reilly point out, “the problem with our obsessive consumption—even overlooking such pesky considerations as the plundering of our
natural resources—is that it managed, in the last half-century, to become
our culture.”5
The Importance of Examining Resource Use

How humans live significantly affects the natural environment. The
common term for ways of living is, simply put, a lifestyle. Lifestyles may varyin countless ways, and none of them can be separated from human consumption and their use of resources.
What is the extent of the human population’s and their lifestyles’ impact
on our environment? As a species, homo sapiens have caused permanent changes
to the Earth. Humans are the dominant residents of the planet, and as theUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP) explains, “for the first time.:      :   

in our history the most serious and immediate, even existential, risks are humanmade and unfolding on a planetary scale.”6 The global population, currently
numbering seven billion, is projected to peak at around ten billion by the endof this century. Overpopulation is one concern, but an even larger one might be
the infinite appetite for resources.7 In the last century, as the global population
increased by a factor of four, the consumption of extracted energy and materials increased even further, with fossil, ores and minerals, and construction
materials growing twelve, twenty-seven, and thirty-four times, respectively.8 At
present, no part of the world has been untouched by human beings.
Moving beyond humanity’s general influence, we need to consider thedisproportionate effect of the wealthiest; their outsized impact means that the
responsibility for environmental harm is not equal. Who can afford to live
in McMansions and travel by private jets? In short, the wealthy create more
harm. Focusing on a wide range of environmental impacts, including deforestation, habitat loss, and water pollution, research has shown that “overall
wealth is the most important correlate of environmental impact.”9 Wiedmann
et al. suggest that “consumption of affluent households worldwide is by far
the strongest determinant and the strongest accelerator of increases of global
environmental and social impacts.”10
Capitalism as a Driving Force Behind Consumerism

Capitalism is the main driver of the global economy, including its
particular way of relating to nature. With the drive to maximize profits
serving as the principal motivation, the natural world provides resources
to be exploited for capitalist objectives. Therefore, the capitalist approach
is what continues to lead the aggressive search for and use of the Earth’s
riches, whether energy and minerals, or fisheries and forest. Materials that
accumulated over millions of years are harvested, extracted, captured, andprocessed into millions of products, all in the geologic blink of an eye.
Capitalism is the most influential economic system in the history of
the entire world. Most countries take part in the global capital market, andcapitalist states make up most of the largest economies. In 2018, the UnitedStates, China, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom were greatest whenmeasured by GDP in billions of USD.11 China is the exception here, though
its consumer drive is alive and well. Based on what has been labeled “state
capitalism,”12 its industrial output and export economy have been essential
in fueling the global economic system. China’s urban centers and burgeoning
middle class are now a part of this calculation, with residents capable ofengaging in consumption that is not dissimilar to the United States and Japan.
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The country is the global epicenter for luxury goods, accounting for 40 percent
of global demand in 2021.13
Notably, the capitalist-consumer system has enabled more people to live
better lives than at any time in human history. It has led to a transformation of energy and materials into economic growth—as measured by GDP—
has increased exponentially, while global poverty has plummeted over recent
decades. Amazingly, this has occurred even though there are now more people
on Earth, and they require more resources than ever before. Comparing countries’ Human Development Index ranking with use of “personal wealth andresources” shows a positive correlation between material consumption andwell-being.14 However, we must recognize that in helping to improve millions,and indeed billions of lives, capitalism has relied on tapping Earth’s nonrenewable energy and resources. This reveals the challenge of the Anthropocene, as
materials accumulated over eons are now consumed within decades.15
The future is one in which increasing affluence plays an even greaterrole than population in terms of resource use. It is estimated that “the world
economy could more than double in size by 2050, far outstripping population growth, due to continued technology-driven productivity improvement.”16 Even after the number of humans peaks and starts to decline, theneed to supply them will remain an increasing environmental burden. Whichcountries will serve as drivers? The remainder of this century will be driven by
emerging economies, and by 2050, the projected top economies by size are
China, India, the United States, and then Indonesia.17
Consumer-driven lifestyles presently found around the world arein large part driven by capitalism. In fact, today, capitalism is effectively
considered synonymous with consumerism. The term “consumer capitalism” is used to describe this phenomenon, and today it has become “adominant industrial force,” with a “capacity for proliferation – to turnnature into dazzling aisles of consumable goods.”18 It seems that the link
between capitalism and consumerism is partly due to cultural norms (e.g.,
Europeans generally live with a smaller number of higher-quality goods)
but also a reflection of available discretionary income. The current capitalist model drives a particular type of consumer whose habits are exhibitedin an exploitative lifestyle and a super-charged hyper-consumerism.
Consumer Lifestyles and Disconnect from Nature

The modern form of consumerism, with its focus on expansion,newness, and replacement, including a preponderance of single-use
products, fosters a disconnect between people and nature. Why should.:      :   

someone care about from where an item comes, when it is only in theirlives for a short time, and can easily be replaced through another cheap
purchase? Consumer society is focused on giving people freedom of choicein acquiring a nearly endless array of items.
Regardless of a country’s type of economy, hyper-consumerism has
swept across the globe. This phenomenon consists of the omnipresent,
intense, often insidious social pressure to collect more and more items,
which are sometimes pejoratively referred to as “stuff.”19 These are the products, goods, objects that we surround ourselves with, and whose origin we
often know little about. Materialism leads people to seek comfort throughpossessions, explains Kasser, but data shows that once basic needs are met,
further material attainment is not necessarily associated with an increasein happiness; instead, it leaves people feeling empty, leading to a further
cycle of spending.20 Schor calls this “the paradox of rising consumption
and pervasive dissatisfaction.”21
Indeed, the connection between people and nature is more important than ever before. In its Human Development Report 2020, UNDP
explains the importance of appreciating the link between humans and our
natural world. Establishing the importance of recognizing such a connection, UNDP asserts that, “it is essential to do away with stark distinctions
between people and planet. Earth system approaches increasingly point to
our interconnectedness as socio-ecological systems.”22
And yet consumers, in many respects, are disconnected from theimpacts of their lifestyle choices. Privileged global elites fail to internalizethat their comfortable existence depend in part on sourcing materials fromdistant places. As West-Pavlov writes, Foucault’s concepts enable us “tothink beyond everyday activities to processes which make those everyday
activities possible.”23 We are not sufficiently appreciative, and “because we
generally take such conditions of possibility for granted, we remain blindto their significance.”24 He goes on to explain that there may, in fact, bea more intentional form of ignorance, as “frequently, conditions of possibility of our existence are quite deliberately located out of our sight so as
not to disturb our contented oblivion.”25
Admittedly, not all responsibility may lie at the feet of consumers.
Perry et al. explain that it is difficult for people to connect with nature as“linking individual behaviors to ecological impacts are further obstructedby difficulties in quantifying environmental change and impacts.”26 But
what we can say is that there is concern that in a more urbanized world weare less aware of our impacts, and less in touch with nature. Perhaps it is
not feasible to hold consumers responsible. The links between people and.:  

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nature are rarely clear. Regardless of our degree of knowledge and motives,
the products in our lives “may be produced in non-Western countries bypeople working long hours for low wages and without elementary forms ofsocial security, but this remains largely irrelevant to us because it is conveniently beyond our horizons.”27 In the end, capitalist consumers are lessconnected to the impacts of their lifestyles, while global trends lead toincreasingly industrialized, urbanized, and materialistic lives.
AN ONTOLOGY OF DISCONNECTION: FROM EXTRACTION
TO CONSUMPTION

How can we account for the disconnect between consumers andthe resources they require to build, heat, move, and accessorize their lives?
The separation between those who are on the “inside” or “outside,” richor poor, close or distant, comes in many forms, including spatial, geopolitical, economic, territorial, social, and cultural.28 There is inevitably someoverlap between these different areas, and no one lens is sufficient in andof itself. Based on a review of a select number of major theories posited to
explain separation at various levels, from global to national to individual,
this section considers geographic (spatio-political), historical, economic,
and cognitive reasons for consumers’ separation from the resources they
rely on. They serve as a heterogenous set of theories that can explain thelevel of disconnection, or disassociation, experienced by consumers.
Spatio-Political Disconnection

Spatial theory provides a key means of understanding power differentials that exist between different locations. The best place to start is with
Foucault, who wrote in 1967 that when it came to spaces, “we are in theepoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of
the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed.”29 He put forward
a new spatial notion, that of “heterotopia,” which are “counter-sites,” andrepresent “a juxtapositional, relational space, a site that represents incompatible spaces and reveals paradoxes.”30 Because of heterotopias, there canbe utopias. There is the sense that those places that are outside make theinside possible.
More recently, the geographical concept of space was enunciated by
Giorgio Agamben, writing on a spatial theory of power. He looks beyond“spatiotemporal” differences, or “traditional political geographical theories
about inclusion and exclusion, belonging, and insularity,” and considers
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the political exclusion of a certain set of peoples.31 Here, the spatial andthe political disenfranchisement and disregard for others go hand in hand.
Historically, past centuries have seen an incorporation and consolidation of many land areas into nation-states. Focusing on Southeast Asia,
Scott notes that “non-state space” was predominant until the more recent
era of human civilization, when a process of enclosure by powerful centralized states could “bring nonstate spaces and people to heel.”32 This fits in as“an effort to integrate and monetize the people, lands, and resources of theperiphery.”33 Moreover, the post-World War II period witnessed decadesof decolonization, wherein former territories were broken up, and by theend of the 20th century most land around the world was associated with anation-state.
Over recent decades, there has been a shift in the global system ofnation-states and the concept of sovereignty itself. As such, according to
Sassen, the traditional notion of states (including well-defined borders,
centralized power, and control over its citizenry) may have become obsolete.34 In an era of intensifying globalization, multinational companies,
terrorists, financial institutions, the International Criminal Court, andsocial media-inspired civil society all operate across state lines. A characteristic of this transition is, as described by Sassen, “large-scale land acquisitions by foreign governments and firms,” with the result that “interstateborders matter less today for many international flows.”35 Sassen writes that,“at least some of the critical components of this territorial authority…looknational but are actually geared toward global agendas, some good, somenot so good at all.”36 This means that some areas of the world exist outsideof the control of a state. The residents of these places are not protected by anational government and are deprived from legal means of recourse to any
infringement of their rights in the international system.
Even cities that remain part of a country existing within the statesystem can become more separated, through “peripheralization”. This
concept is defined as “spatially organized inequality of power relations andaccess to material and symbolic goods that constructs and perpetuates theprecedence of the centres over areas that are marginalized.”37 Whereas there
can be countries that are more isolated or disregarded, so too can cities
be left out, and spatially differentiated.38 As Fischer-Tahir and Naumannexplain, “peripheries emerge from the intrinsic logic of uneven development in capitalist societies.”39
In essence, though not Foucault’s original intention, it is possible thatthe concept of “territoriality” is most important, as an area of land or territory can be delinked from political control over it. Sassen further explains
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that, in our era of mapping the world, it is possible to notice new spaces—
a terra nullius—that do not quite fit into the formal system of states.40 They
may be overlooked, leading to “the conceptual invisibility of territories thatexit the state’s territorial authority.41 The result is “the emerging instabilityof traditional versions of territoriality, partly as a consequence of globalization” and “asymmetries between territory and territoriality.”42 There may
be land, but it is not always controlled, defended, or cared for. Those that
do have control may not be thinking of those they harm. As Andreucci
and Zografos put it in reference to Klein, “to the extent that they follow an
extractivist and colonial logic, large-scale renewable energy and associatedextractive-infrastructural projects are illustrative of ‘necropolitical,’ exclusionary uses of othering.”43
Economic Disconnection

Though described above in geographic terms, spatial theories areclosely linked to theories on economic systems. A prominent one is dependency theory. Considered from a global perspective, dependency theory
views the world as one in which weaker post-colonial countries are trappedin a system of supply to and exploitation by powerful developed countries.
Serving as a counter to modernization theory’s optimistic view that contact
benefits less-developed countries, it laid the foundation from which worldsystems theory emerged. Specifically, Wallerstein’s explication of worldsystems theory arose in the 1970s and provides an economic explanation
for differences between countries, dividing the world into three types ofregions: core, periphery, and semi-periphery. The periphery exports unprocessed materials to more developed and powerful parts of the world (thecore), which controls trade and uses it to accumulate more capital. In
essence, the core exploits the periphery.
The separation between beneficiaries and the exploited can also be
considered from an historical angle. Peripheralization refers to an active
process of detachment created by modern development processes. Le Billon
writes that “theories of uneven development suggest resource dependence
has spatial dimensions, expressed as selective processes of modernizationand peripheralization combined with the production of hierarchical scales
predominantly defined by their relationship with the resource sector.”44
Additionally, the “geographical contributions in this regard can capture
processes of peripheralization and uneven development defining social
relations around resource exploitation.”45
In summary, the capitalist system itself is a driver of the separation
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into different geographic zones. From this perspective, part of the distance
between people is economic and self-serving in nature, as companies are
driven by profits while far-off consumers are motivated by utility.
The geographer David Harvey presents a more recent take. Publishedin 2006, his book Spaces of Global Capitalism: A Theory of Uneven
Geographical Development considers capitalism in its current form and theresulting increase in inequality between countries. The text is known for“tracing the uneven geographical development of capitalism.”46 However,the disconnect is bridged by the very goods that make up the capitalist
economic system. Le Billon notes, for example, that “geographies ofcommodity chains connect spaces of production and consumption,” andthat these different sites are vertically connected.47 Those who consume
and thereby use resources are tied to the places from which those materials arrive. Meanwhile, the process of further globalization deepens theconnection between different places while also, in many cases, increasing
the inequities between them.
With a deepening of global connection, it is possible to lookthroughout recorded human history and find cases of separation, division,and othering. One of the most profound and relatively recent eras wasthat of European exploration and its following colonial rule. Although 500
years of colonial imposition saw a sharp decline in the “decolonization era”
after World War II, coercive economic relationships between former colonizing powers and the formerly colonized remain ever present. As such,the term neocolonialism is used to describe the process whereby previous
rulers continue to exert influence, if not outright control, on former colonial subjects through coercive economic or political relations. West-Pavlov
states that, “the wealth and prosperity enjoyed by us today is often the
direct result of colonial or imperial exploitation in the past.”48 Moreover,Boano correctly notes that “modernity is a colonial modernity, and its
histories and geographies have been made in the shadow of colonialism.”49
Cognitive Disconnection

Through the everyday practices that require people to view andconceptualize their worldviews, they also, explicitly or implicitly, create
cognitive distance from spaces outside their mental frames. As a result, their
daily lives continue without being overwhelmed by the burden of theirenvironmental impact. Implicit processes include generation of “cognitive distances” occurring through “intertemporal discounting,” in whichpeople consider future effects as less important than those in the present
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moment.50 Conversely, people may also understand the impacts of theirconsumption but rationalize it with the notion that they are doing goodin other ways. A suitable example would be an individual who proudly
recycles their newspapers and cans each week, which then gives themself
mental permission to fly on an airplane. In effect, consumers are able togo about their lives more freely because the convoluted supply chain maintains a disconnection from their impacts.
Such logic, however, is premised on false equivalencies. Humans are
swayed by the “balancing heuristic,” which enables an internal accounting
for behaviors or actions that positively or negatively affect the environment
even when they do not equate. As Sörqvist and Langeborg explain, there
are “misconceptions that ‘green’ choices can compensate for unsustainable
ones.”51 As such, people can use their environmentalist actions to justify
the way that their lives require natural resources from elsewhere. In addition, it is possible that an eco-minded person might make what they think
is a green decision, but actually cause more harm.52
Psychologists also note the difference between the abstract and theconcrete. Human beings are more likely to act on the latter, implying thatthe thought of some far-off environmental impact is probably going tobe less influential.53 Another explanatory factor is a human tendency ofoutright denial,54 including denial of caused harm; individuals are somehow
able to distance themselves from the injury or even death of others.55
In sum, what can we say about the effect of lifestyles on resources
drawn from elsewhere? The reviewed theories provide both overlappingand competing explanations that help determine the level of connection
or disassociation between consumers and the resources on which they
depend. An overview of these theories of disassociation is shown in Table 1.

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Summary

Affected People
and Places

SpatioPolitical

Heterotopia
Camps
Spatial theoryof power
Borders
Territoriality

Spatial and physicaldistance
People separated into
worse places (whichallow the central
place to exist conceptually)
Parts of the world
do not fit into thenation-state and are
not protected, or are
disadvantaged

Far off
People groupedand differentiatedOutside of thestate system
Unprotected or
not cared for

Economic

Economic differences/or a relationship
Capitalism increases
the differences
Exploitation, or aCenter-periphery
subservient supplyNeocolonialism
chain relationship
Influence based on
previous colonial relationship, based on the
past

Type

Cognitive

Intertemporaldiscounting
Balancingheuristic

Individuals and theuse of heuristics;
people find ways tojustify or deal withthe separation

Periphery
supporting core
Unequal development
Increasing inequity- Affectedeconomically,
culturally

Overlookedby people
Sometimes
unintentionallyharmedSeen, impacted,
but not
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THE IMPLICATIONS OF URBANIZATION: RESOURCE USE ANDDISCONNECTION

Increased industrialization—closely tied to urbanization—leads tomore resource use. At the same time, there is a disassociation between
consumers, particularly urban ones, and the environmental impacts of
their lifestyles.
The Role of Cities, Industrialization, and Urbanization

Increased urbanization has followed the industrialization of modern
society. In cities, this is based on the “strong relationship between urbanization and income: as countries get richer, they tend to become more urbanized.”56 In fact, homo sapiens is now a metropolitan species, with 55 percent
living in urban areas as of 2018. This figure is projected to increase toaround 68 percent by mid-century.57 The rapid pace at which humankind
is urbanizing serves as “a key indicator of the accelerating human endeavor
in the Anthropocene.”58 Cities will be even more important in the futurewith many of them expanding in size, leading to a 171 percent increase in
their ecological footprint worldwide between 2015 and 2050.59
Highly industrial and urbanized countries, on average, have a greater
per capita effect on the environment. Humans are using more resources
than nature can replenish, and “urbanization is a key factor that accelerates
depletion since an increase in urbanization leads to an increase in natural
resource consumption.”60 UNDP’s 2020 Human Development Report
includes data showing that “countries with higher human development
tend to exert more pressure over greater scales on the planet.”61 Wealthierpeople, who are more likely to live in cities,62 typically have a higher standard of living,63 and thus have greater environmental impacts. According
to the United Nations, “environmental sustainability is additionally challenged by the consumption patterns that prevail in urban settings. Owingin part to their higher incomes, urban dwellers tend to consume more percapita than rural dwellers.”64
Cities need to draw on resources from elsewhere, a process that has asignificant though oft unrecognized impact on distant places. The massive
human agglomerations where we live cannot exist by themselves; “urban
areas are dependent on extracting external…resources,” and “cities havelong been known to depend on their natural hinterlands.”65 As Rademacher
states, “planetary urbanism emphasizes the almost infinite connectivity
between concentrated city zones and their hinterlands.”66 Elmqvist et al.
.:      :   

concur, stating that “human activities, not least in urban regions, increase
the spatial dimensions of connectivity,” and that in terms of related drivers
such as trade and consumption, “the speed and scale at which they occur
are unprecedented.”67
As affluence, urbanization, and industrialization increase, so too does
the level of potential harm to the natural world. This is not surprising, andwith it increases the disconnect to impacts on the natural environment.
In cities, people’s “disconnection…tends to lead to the undervaluation of
remote nature—and associated deforestation and other habitat destruction.”68 Cities’ continued expansion in size and scale lead to “a series ofchallenges varying from natural resources consumption, or ‘spatial peripheralization,’ to the development of social and economic imbalances andphysical and environmental degradation, in a process of ‘a-spatial peripheralization.’”69 Cities can be spaces places that are themselves spatially differentiated, and at the same time distant from the other places and peoples
that their residents marginalize.
In a way, it seems that where go cities, so goes the future of humansociety. As a result, this makes “global urban change a frontier of sciencefor sustainability.”70 Moreover, “humans must confront the material andsocial experience of living on a planet dominated by concentrated humansettlements and their associated processes as never before.”71 Cities are key
in terms of environmental impacts and sustainability since they all “dependon large imports of energy and other natural resources to satisfy consumption of their inhabitants.”72 Ultimately, “how resource use develops in cities
has strong implications for resource flows in different scales and relatedpressures.”73
The Greater the Industrialization, the Greater the Disconnect

The disconnect that city residents have from nature exists in multiple
forms. There is “the increasing physical and cognitive distance between(re)sources and consumers as well as actions and outcomes.”74 On the one
hand, “globalization, advancing technological development, commodification, and sectoral compartmentalization are adding a growing numberof intermediate steps between people and the resources they use, such as
natural resources, information, and technology.”75 On the other hand,an “ever-greater cognitive distance makes it increasingly challenging forpeople to know the impacts of their consumptive decisions.”76
Such mental separation may be deliberate through a process termed“strategic ignorance.” This phenomenon occurs when “people benefit from.:  

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     

ignoring information about the harm they cause, because ignorance reduces
feelings of guilt.”77 Or, according to research by Slovic, “psychic numbing”
occurs as the size of a problem, or an emergency, gets larger. An increase in
the number of people who are harmed leads to a decrease in empathy,78 andthe result is an inadequate response to the problem.79
Urban denizens are not always aware of their connection to resources
at a distance, and some authors question whether we can expect them tobe knowledgeable. Elmqvist et al. observe that cities need external inputs,and “an increase in global connectivity and redundancy of supply systems
has masked this dependence, particularly consequences of local resource
exploitation.”80 Admittedly, city dwellers have had difficulty making
informed decisions that serve to mitigate such consequences: “it can bechallenging, almost impossible, to make positive choices for sustainableconsumption with so many information [sub-]steps within each step tounderstand or have information on to inform consumption practices.”81
Even if city dwellers have a broader awareness, Wiedmann et al. provide
further support for their innocence when noting that “scholars of sustainable consumption have shown that consumers often have little control overenvironmentally damaging decisions along supply chains.”82
DISCONNECTION THROUGH EXTRACTIVE PROCESSESThe takeaway from previous sections is that the inhabitants of cities
in highly industrialized capitalist countries, who make up the greatest
share of wealthy consumers, are more harmful and yet also more disassociated from the impact of their lifestyles. The paradox emerges that although
there are higher levels of education in more industrialized countries thatcan lead to increased awareness, it is these very industrialized countries inwhich the disconnect with nature is greatest. Sometimes this is by choice,and sometimes it is unintentional. Either way, the increased propensity
for environmental harm remains. Broadly speaking, this paper posits
that comparatively more industrialized and urbanized societies (1) have agreater impact on nature and (2) are more disconnected from their impact
on nature at a global level.
What type of evidence would demonstrate the occurrence of this
disconnect occurs in cities? Table 2 presents data that reveals the separation
between cities and the resources that support them.

.:      :   TABLE 2. HOW CAN INCREASED URBANIZATION LEAD TO FURTHERDISCONNECT FROM NATURE?

Type

Spatio-Political

Economic

Cognitive

Indicators Within Cities

People move to urban areas. This increases their physical separation.
More people in cities leads to increased dependence
on longer supply chains.
Cities may interact and benefit from relations withplaces that operate outside (or partially within) thestate system. Overall, this benefits urban areas at theexpense of rural areas.
Economic power deepens in cities. This increases therelative importance of cities compared to other lessimportant locations.
History of cities and reliance on colonies means thatsome urban locations’ growth relied on colonialism.
Urban areas continue to gain from their previous relationships with subordinate locations.
People become less connected when living withincities, becoming separated from both nature and theirown individual effects. As a result, growing city populations add to the number of people who are disassociated from the effects that their individual lifestyles
have on nature.

The following section will consider whether a singular approach has
greater explanatory power, or whether a combination of approaches ismore useful. It will do so by applying the theories not only to supply chains
but also to the movement of resources to industrialized economies. The
evidence that follows is selective and does not cover the entire world, but
it effectively demonstrates how urbanization leads to further disassociationfrom environmental impacts.
Evidence of Spatio-Political Disconnection

Further urbanization and growth deepens cities’ impact on nature.
The European Environment Agency remarks that, “the move to cities isincreasing the incomes of millions of people,” which has therefore led to“the rise of consuming classes around the world.”83 Indeed, it has been estimated that the number of middle-class consumers increases by 150 million
.:  

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annually.84 This represents a lot of new household appliance consumption,
expansion of air travel, and use of resources. Overall, an increase in thenumber of consumers presents a double-edged sword; they at once spark
economic growth and “exacerbate the demand for natural resources andfood.”85 In the end, “the future growth of cities and concomitant appropriation of land and natural resources will determine success towards anenvironmentally sustainable future.”86
Extended supply chains result in consumers being less aware of from
where items they buy come. Measures of “supply chain proximity,” such asthat for food, reveal this phenomenon. In low-income countries, in order“to supply increased volumes of food demanded by urban consumers,
supply chains must lengthen geographically, increasing the potential toreach farmers in more and more distant areas.” This may benefit those whogrow and sell the food,87 but also brings environmental impacts as a lot of
it is imported. Consider the United States, where “each year, more than
5.7 million tons of both domestic and international food shipments flow
into New York City, snaking their way over sea, rail, and road from farms,
fisheries, and factories to the city’s retailers and restaurants.”88 Often, foodtravels far as “supply chains [that] can span a large geographic distance.
In Beijing, for example, the chain for rice, fish, and potatoes can reach
600–800 miles outside of the city.”89
Miroudot and Nordström found that for some products, the locations for sourcing exist at longer distances.90 They examined a set of sample
countries (twenty-seven EU countries, Canada, Mexico, and the UnitedStates, as well as major countries in the Asia-Pacific) between 1995 and2011 and found that the average distance inputs travel increased in all but
two years; the average distance increased from 1,545 km in 1995 to 2,200
km in 2011, a 42 percent increase.91
Furthermore, there are parts of the world that operate outside ofgovernment control and yet are connected (albeit distantly) to the globalized economy. One example is small-scale Indonesian coffee farms set up
within national parks that operate without government oversight yet form
an integral part of global supply chains, which in turn provide caffeination
to sleep-deprived consumers.92 The same farms play a significant role inlarge-scale deforestation.93
In summary, urbanization and increasing migration to cities—a key
demographic change—also have implications for geography, as it meansthat more people will likely be less connected to nature. Some supply
chains can be quite long and unclear, which had led to uncertainty about
the provenance of the products in our lives.
.:      :   
Evidence of Economic Disconnection

The difference in living standards between cities and rural areas is
nothing new. Indeed, “for centuries, cities have offered higher standards ofliving than rural areas.”94 In Asia, for example, the average income for thoseliving in Chinese and Indian cities is approximately three times larger thanfor their rural compatriots.95 There is also a shift in the location of the mostprominent global cities. Data shows that between 2011 and 2025, the top
600 cities “will generate 60 percent of global GDP growth during thisperiod.”96 Interestingly, though, these cities will exist more in the Global
South. Writing in 2012, Cadena et al. explained that “between now and2025, the center of gravity of the urban world will shift South and East.”97
Overall, cities are still places of greater impact, but some of these urban
areas will be located in formerly “distanced” places.
Recently, there has been mixed evidence in terms of the gap between
rural and urban areas. Chen et al. found, while studying Chinese provinces
for the years 1978 to 2019, that “urbanization widens the urban–rural
income gap.”98 Imai and Malaeb state that on one hand, “China’s income
inequality is characterized by rural-urban disparity,” but they do not indicate whether it is getting better or worse. On the other hand, “India’s
rural-urban income gap has narrowed in recent years.”99 They explain that“rural-urban disparity in GDP per capita…characterizes overall inequality
at national levels.”100 Evidence shows that rural areas are not necessarily left
behind in terms of income. In Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and Vietnam,
for example, “it can be inferred that, generally, the rural-urban income
gaps of households at different distributional points have been narrowing
in a number of Asian countries over time, for instance, owing to a reduction in the rural-urban wage gap over time.”101
In addition, rural locales are less able to reap the benefits of globalization, should any exist for them in the first place. Research demonstrates
that “rural areas tend to be less affected by the process of globalization—for instance, as a result of their geographical remoteness.”102 Indeed, thoseoften less urbanized countries, which serve as sources of raw materials, only
receive a fraction of the monetary value from the final products createdfrom their natural resources. An oft-cited example is that for a typical cupof coffee sold in a Western country, the grower receives only 0.4 percent of
the marginal revenue.103 These days, this disparity occurs on a much larger
scale and for a broader range of materials and items, resulting in less urbanized areas’ remaining vulnerable. The Chinese economy is known as thefactory of the world, and its demand for resources is so great that it “imports.:  

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     

the majority of Africa’s mineral resources.”104 As far back as 2013, the UN
Environment Programme stated that “China’s growing affluence has madeit the world’s largest consumer of primary materials (such as construction
minerals, metal ores, fossil fuels and biomass).”105 In 2014, The Washington
Post wrote about how China’s “search for natural resources is having a huge
impact on the rest of the world.”106 Yet, how many of the finished products,
shipped to urban residents, end up putting money in the pocket of thecommunities where resources are extracted? There is growing evidence of an
ongoing “rural-urban disparity” that relates to the historical disassociation
between city residents and their negative environmental impact.
The legacy of colonialism continues to the present-day and influences how resource-supplying areas (likely former colonies) support industrial centers (often imperial powers) that are disconnected from theirnatural environment. Admittedly, influence by colonial powers over theirformer territories has declined over the past half-century. This is in part a
result of globalization and the broadening of trade networks. This has led
to a former colony no longer needing to depend on its former ruler as its
primary economic market or trade partner. Looking at France, for example,
Infante-Amate and Krausmann found that “colonial ties were very strong
in the 1960s, but thereafter quickly diminished.”107 Yet, some elements ofthe colonial economic system persist today and shape the ongoing patternsof relations between countries. Trade is “still largely driven by primarycommodities and natural resources, reflecting the persistence of the colonial development model where natural resource-endowed nations served
as feedstock to advanced economies.”108 Historically, “Europeans created‘extractive institutions,’ which endowed large powers to the state and transferred natural resources to colonizers.”109
Colonialism, therefore, has contributed to the emergence of theinequality and power imbalances that exist in the present. There is a “colonial legacy of exploitation,” Nwakalor explains in reviewing Galeano’s
Open Veins of Latin America.110 This extends to environmental harm, as“colonialism underpins our global economic system, one predicated on
overconsumption and disregard for planetary boundaries.”111 Colonialism
brought further wealth to a number of today’s most developed nations
while simultaneously creating significant amounts of carbon emissions.112
And today, colonialism’s environmental legacy is also seen within not onlychanged landscapes, but also altered flora and fauna in different parts of theworld.113 The result is that urban beneficiaries of colonial pasts are largely
unaware of the natural and human exploitation that forms the foundationof their way of life.
.:      :   

Overall, patterns of past colonialism continue to have influence
today, thereby providing the foundation for some of the current patterns oftrade. Urban beneficiaries of these systems are not always cognizant of how
they profit from these past and present-day inequities. As the economic
power of consumers in cities increase, people living there might becomeless aware of their connection to rural resource-providing areas.
Evidence of Cognitive Disconnection

There is deepening concern about the degree of separation between
people and nature. While humankind’s preeminence over other living beings
is clear, it is necessary to recognize a core principle of sustainability—that
all civilization and society is based upon the foundation provided by thenatural world. Presently, “human connection with nature is widely believed
to be in decline even though empirical evidence is scarce on the magnitudeand historical pattern of the change.”114 In the U.S., this change in attitudes is most pronounced when comparing urban and rural areas. Usingclimate change concerns as a proxy, 80 percent of city residents say they
are personally worried, as compared to 68 percent of those in rural areas.115
The implication is that city residents would be less concerned about how
their actions lead to remote environmental changes. At the same time, in
the United States, there is a growing movement aiming for a re-engagement with the natural world. Hancock says that contact with nature is one
way to get people to care more about preserving it.116 However, if they livein cities, they may not have “nature contact” in the first place, as city living
is associated with lessened contact with nature. In general, there may be
a decrease in people’s contact with nature, one that is further exacerbatedwhen they live within cities.
CONCLUSION

This article has reviewed the linkages between human lifestyles andthe environment. It explained how highly industrialized and urbanizedsocieties are responsible for most natural resource use, provided evidence
showing that capitalism’s particular relationship with nature is harmful,and reviewed arguments supporting the contention that more urbanizedsocieties have a greater disassociation from their environmental impacts.
The evidence provided reveals the need to be concerned about the urbanization trend since it can separate us even more from nature. It is not clear,with the framework considering socio-political, economic, and cogni.:  

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tive aspects, whether one area is clearly more important. Together, they
contribute to city residents’ disassociation from nature. No matter thecountry, and accounting for differing societal conceptions of connection
to the broader world, there remains a disconnect between consumers andtheir resource use.
Going forward, what can be done? A potential solution to someof the problems of disconnection and disassociation can be found in thenotions of spatial justice and environmental justice. Embracing the firstwould deepen our understanding of the uneven distribution of benefits
and harms to different communities, while the second considers this froma “green” perspective. The latter is based on the principle that everyone,
no matter their background and location, is deserving of environmental
protection. If this were to be achieved, the requisite increase in awarenessand improvement in safeguarding natural resources would take place wherematerials are sourced and, as with the supply chain, work its way upwards
to consumers in industrialized countries. Simultaneously, city residents tooneed to actively increase their awareness, taking steps to overcome further
separation from nature that comes with urban dwelling. f
ENDNOTES
1 Anh Hoang, et al. 2009, “Life Cycle Assessment of a Laptop Computer and its
Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” paper presented at the 8th World Congressof Chemical Engineering 2009, Quebec, Canada.
2 Eduardo S. Brondizio, et al., “Re-Conceptualizing the Anthropocene: A Call for
Collaboration,” Global Environmental Change, July 2016, 39.
3 Ibid., 323.
4 Thomas Wiedmann et al., “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence,” Nature Communications
11 (June 2020): 2.
5 Andrew Benett and Ann O’Reilly, “The End of Hyperconsumerism,” The Atlantic,
July 29, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/07/the-end-ofhyperconsumerism/60558/.
6 Human Development Report 2020: The Next Frontier: Human Development and the
Anthropocene, United Nations Development Programme, 2020, 21.
7 Fred Pearce, “It’s Not Overpopulation That Causes Climate Change, it’sOverconsumption,” The Guardian, September 19, 2014.
8 Urban Sustainability Issues—What is a Resource-Efficient City? European Environment
Agency Technical Report No 23/2015, 16.
9 Corey Bradshaw et al., “Evaluating the Relative Environmental Impact of Countries,”
Plos One, 2010.
10 Wiedmann, “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence,” 1.
11 “The World Economy: Biggest Economies,” The Economist, 2021, https://worldinfigures.com/rankings/index/38.

.:      :   
12 Scott Kennedy and Jude Blanchette, eds., “Chinese State Capitalism: Diagnosis andPrognosis,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 2021, https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/211007_Kennedy_
Chinese_State_Capitalism.pdf.
13 Dasha Afanasieva, “China’s Middle-Class Push has Luxury Silver Lining,” Reuters,
August 23, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/chinas-middle-class-pushhas-luxury-silver-lining-2021-08-23/.
14 Janez Sušnik and Pieter van der Zaag, “Correlation and causation between the UN
Human Development Index and national and personal wealth and resource exploitation,” Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 30 (1) (2017): 1705.
15 Paul J. Crutzen, “The ‘Anthropocene,’” in Earth System Science in the Anthropocene, ed.
Crutzen (Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, 2006), 13-18.
16 John Hawksworth, Rob Clarry, and Hannah Audino, “The World in 2050,” Price
Waterhouse Cooper, February 2017, https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/research-insights/
economy/the-world-in-2050.html.
17 Ibid.
18 Justin Lewis, Beyond Consumer Capitalism: Media and the Limits to Imagination(Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2013).
19 Annie Leonard, Louis Fox, and Jonah Sachs, “The Story of Stuff,” https://www.
storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/.
20 Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002), 3-4, 100.
21 Juliet Schor, “What’s wrong with consumer capitalism? The joyless economy after twenty
years,” Critical Review, 10 (4) (1996): 495.
22 Human Development Report 2020, 8.
23 Russell West-Pavlov, Space in Theory: Kristeva, Foucault, Deleuze (New York: Rodopi,2009), 125.
24 Ibid., 125.
25 Ibid., 126.
26 George L. W. Perry et al., “Evaluating the Role of Social Norms in Fostering
Pro-Environmental Behaviors,” Frontiers in Environmental Science 9 (620125) (June2020).
27 West-Pavlov, 126.
28 Gabriel Giorgi and Karen Pinkus, “Zones of Exception: Biopolitical Territories in the
Neoliberal Era,” Diacritics 36 (2) (Summer 2006): 99-108.
29 Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias,” ArchitectureMouvement-Continuité (October 1984). Translation (without page numbers) available
at https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf.
30 Iwan Sudradjat, “Foucault, the Other Spaces, and Human Behaviour,” Procedia –Social and Behavioral Sciences 36 (2012): 29.
31 Richard Ek, “Giorgio Agamben and the Spatialities of the Camp: An Introduction,”
Geografiska Annaler 88 (4) (2006): 364, 376.
32 James Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast
Asia (United States: Yale University Press, 2010), 3-4.
33 Ibid., 4.
34 Saskia Sassen, “Visible Formalizations and Formally Invisible Facticities,” Indiana
Journal of Global Legal Studies 20 (1) (2013a): 6, 9; Saskia Sassen, “When Territory
Deborders Territoriality,” Territory, Politics, Governance 1 (1) (2013b): 22.
35 Sassen, 2013a, 6, 26.
36 Sassen, 2013b, 38.
37 Andrea Fischer-Tahir and Matthias Naumann, Eds. Peripheralization: The Making of.:  

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Spatial Dependencies and Social Injustice, (Germany, Springer VS), 18.
38 Ibid., 19.
39 Ibid., 18.
40 Sassen, 2013a, 4.
41 Sassen, 2013b, 23.
42 Ibid., 24.
43 Diego Andreucci and Christos Zografos, “Between Improvement and Sacrifice:
Othering and the (Bio)Political Ecology of Climate Change,” Political Geography 92(January 2022): 4.
44 Le Billon, “Diamond Wars,” 348.
45 Ibid., 235.
46 Adam David Morton, “Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven
Geographical Development,” Contemporary Political Theory 6 (2007): 381–382.
47 Philippe Le Billon, “Diamond Wars? Conflict Diamonds and Geographies of Resource
Wars,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 98 (2) (April 2008): 346-347.
48 West-Pavlov, “Space,” 126.
49 Camillo Boano, The Ethics of a Potential Urbanism: Critical Encounters Between Giorgio
Agamben and Architecture (United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis, 2016), 23.
50 Dilip Soman et al., “The Psychology of Intertemporal Discounting: Why are Distant
Events Valued Differently from Proximal Ones?” Marketing Letters 16 (2005):
347-360.
51 Sörqvist and Langeborg, “Climate Compensation,” 1.
52 Ibid., 1.
53 Janet Swim et al., “Psychology and Global Climate Change: Addressing a Multifaceted
Phenomenon and Set of Challenges,” a report by the American Psychological
Association’s Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate
Change,” 2009, https://www.apa.org/science/about/publications/climate-change.pdf.
54 Jem Bendell, “Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy,” IFLAS
Occasional Paper 2, July 27, 2020, http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf.
55 Naomi Klein, “Let Them Drown: The Violence of Othering in a Warming World,”
London Review of Books 38 (11) (June 2016).
56 Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, “Urbanization,” Our World in Data, 2018, https://
ourworldindata.org/urbanization.
57 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, United Nations Secretariat document
ST/ESA/SER.A/420, 2019, xix.
58 Brondizio, “Re-Conceptualizing,” 324.
59 Thomas Elmqvist, et al., “Urbanization in and for the Anthropocene,” Urban
Sustainability 1 (6) (February 2021).
60 Urban Gateway, “The Effects of Urbanization,” https://www.urbangateway.org/news/
effects-urbanization.
61 Human Development Report 2020, 7.
62 David Bloom, et al., “Urbanization and the Wealth of Nations,” Science 319 (5864)(February 2008): 772.
63 Ritchie and Roser, “Urban Populations Tend to Have Higher Living Standards.”
64 UN Secretariat, World Urbanization Prospects, 4.
65 Elmqvist, “Urbanization,” 1-2.
66 Rademacher in reference to Brenner, “Urban Political Ecology,” 141.
67 Elmqvist, “Urbanization,” 2.
68 Ibid., 1.
69 Roberto Gerundo, et al., “Peripheralization Risk Mitigation: A Decision Support.:      :   
Model to Evaluate Urban Regeneration Programs Effectiveness,” Sustainability 12(2020), 1.
70 Elmqvist, “Urbanization,” 1.
71 Rademacher, “Urban Political Ecology,” 138.
72 Stefan Anderberg, “Natural Resource Flows and Sustainability in Urban Areas,” in
Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology (New York: Springer-Verlag,2012): 6853.
73 Ibid., 6854.
74 Elmqvist, “Urbanization,” 6.
75 Ibid., 6.
76 Ibid., 2.
77 Linda Thunström et al., “On Strategic Ignorance of Environmental Harm and Social
Norms,” Revue D’économie Politique 124 (2) (2014).
78 As referred to in Brian Resnick, “A psychologist explains the limits of human compassion,”Vox, September 5, 2017, https://www.vox.com/explainers/2017/7/19/15925506/
psychic-numbing-paul-slovic-apathy.
79 Ibid.
80 Elmqvist, “Urbanization,” 2.
81 Ibid., 3.
82 Wiedmann, “Scientists’ Warning on Affluence,” 2.
83 European Environment Agency, Urban Sustainability, 18.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
86 UN Secretariat, World Urbanization Prospects, 4.
87 Thomas Reardon, “Growing Food for Growing Cities,” Chicago Council on Global
Affairs, April 26, 2016, https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/research/report/growingfood-growing-cities.
88 New York City, “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” report, 2014, http://www.
nyc.gov/html/sirr/downloads/pdf/final_report/Ch_13_CriticalNetwork_FINAL_
singles.pdf; 222.
89 Tove Danovich, “How Will We Feed the Megacities of the Future?” Participant, 2016,
http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/05/03/cities-growing-food.
90 Sébastien Miroudot and Håkan Nordström, “Made in the world,” European University
Institute, working paper, RSCAS 60, 2015.
91 Ibid., 24.
92 Wyatt Williams, “How Your Cup of Coffee Is Clearing the Jungle,” The New YorkTimes, August 11, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/magazine/indonesiarainforest-coffee.html.
93 Ibid.
94 Andres Cadena, Richard Dobbs, and Jaana Remes, “The Growing Economic Power ofCities,” Journal of International Affairs, 65 (2) (2012): 2.
95 Ibid., 2.
96 “Urban World: Mapping the Economic Power of Cities,” McKinsey, 2011, 12. See also
Cadena et al., 4.
97 Cadena et al., “Growing,” 4.
98 Yiguo Chen, et al., “Urbanization and the Urban-Rural Income Gap in China: A
Continuous Wavelet Coherency Analysis,” Sustainability, 12 (8261) (2020): 1, 9.
99 Katshushi Imai and Bilal Malaeb, “Asia’s Rural-Urban Disparity in the Context of
Growing Inequality,” International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Research
Series 27 (2018): 20.

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100 Ibid., 20.
101 Ibid., 14.
102 Ibid., 5.
103 Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart and Emiko Terazano, “From Bean to Cup, What Goes
into the Cost of Your Coffee?” Financial Times, June 4, 2019, https://www.ft.com/
content/44bd6a8e-83a5-11e9-9935-ad75bb96c849.
104 Abdi Latif Dahir, “Africa’s Resource-Rich Nations are Getting Even More Reliant
on China for Their Exports,” Quartz Africa, April 26, 2019 https://qz.com/
africa/1605497/belt-and-road-africa-mineral-rich-nations-export-mostly-to-china/.
105 United Nations Environmental Programme, “China Outpacing Rest of World in
Natural Resource Use,” press release, August 2, 2013, https://www.unep.org/newsand-stories/press-release/china-outpacing-rest-world-natural-resource-use.
106 Brad Plumer, “How China’s Appetite for Raw Materials is Transforming the World,”
The Washington Post, February 13, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/
wonk/wp/2014/02/13/how-chinas-hunt-for-raw-materials-is-changing-the-world/.
107 Juan Infante-Amate and Fridolin Krausmann, “Trade, Ecologically Unequal
Exchange, and Colonial Legacy: The Case of France and its Former Colonies (1962–2015),” Ecological Economics, 156 (February 2019): 98-109.
108 Hippolyte Fofack, Overcoming the Colonial Development Model of Resource Extraction
for Sustainable Development in Africa, Brookings, January 31, 2019.
109 Antoine Parent, “Introduction to the Special Issue on Colonial Institutions andAfrican Development,” Journal of Institutional Economics, 14 (2) (November 2017):
198.
110 Ugochukwu Nwakalor, “Book Review: The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo
Galeano,” Journal of Historical Studies, 2 (1) (2013).
111 S. Elva Bennett, “Why We Need to Confront Climate Change’s Colonial Legacy,”
Columbia Climate School, June 10, 2019, https://climatesociety.ei.columbia.edu/
news/why-we-need-confront-climate-changes-colonial-legacy.
112 Ibid., 2019.
113 Robin McKie, “How Our Colonial Past Altered the Ecobalance of an Entire Planet,”
The Guardian, June 10, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jun/10/
colonialism-changed-earth-geology-claim-scientists.
114 Selin Kesebir and Pelin Kesebir, “A Growing Disconnection From Nature is Evident
in Cultural Products,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 12 (2) (March 2017):
258-269.
115 Natalie Kobayashi, “Climate Attitudes Differ in Rural, Suburban, and Urban
Living,” American Climate Perspectives Survey 2 (2019), https://ecoamerica.org/
american-climate-perspectives-survey-2019-vol-ii/.
116 Trevor Hancock, “Beyond Science and Technology: Creating Planetary Health
Needs Not Just ‘Head Stuff,’ but Social Engagement and ‘Heart, Gut and Spirit’
Stuff,” Challenges 10 (1) (2019).

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