Natural Connection

A new pathway to a thriving future rooted in our relationships with the living world and each other

Reimagining environmentalism as an act of doing and a way of being in the world and climate action as a shared goal, not an individual burden, Natural Connection draws on the legacies and ongoing resistance of marginalised communities around the globe to guide us toward a more sustainable relationship with the living world.

Joycelyn Longdon defines six conceptual roots—rage, imagination, innovation, theory, healing and care—that can help us to transform environmentalism from the ground up and cultivate the natural connection so essential to creating a safe and thriving shared future. Rage is a necessary response to systems of oppression but impedes progress if it isn’t transformed into action. Imagination is essential to resisting the logics of colonialism and exploitation. Theory is a means of building collective wisdom. Longdon illuminates these and other principles, practices and teachings, highlighting the voices and stories of marginalised communities who have revolutionized the landscape of environmentalism, such as the Afro-Indigenous Brazilian quilombolas who fought to defend their ancestral lands, Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine of Nigeria who lost their lives in the struggle against environmental destruction by fossil fuel giants, and the women of the Indian Himalayas who sparked a mass movement of nonviolent protest against deforestation by hugging trees. Along the way, this lyrical, provocative and deeply humane book interweaves powerfully resonant ideas from writers, philosophers, environmentalists, activists and other changemakers, such as Rebecca Solnit, Poppy Okotcha, Robert Macfarlane, Katherine May and Olafur Eliasson.

Rooted in the profound knowledge that we only have each other and the earth itself, Natural Connection cultivates hope in growing a better future together.