Humans have co-existed with other beings in the natural world for ages, but how would you define your connection with nature?
Humans are born as a part of nature, and it explains why many of us tend to both crave and seek out ways of connecting with it. However, chances are for most of us, we probably find ourselves more frequently surrounded by manmade / built environments rather than the natural world.
From golden beaches to rainforests and waterfalls, Australia is renowned throughout the world for its amazingly biodiverse ecosystems, but how important are our natural environments exactly? Well we are now coming to the realization that proactive biodiversity conservation is significant to all of us. This is because, in reality, our physical, social and economic well-being ultimately relies on what our ecosystems provide. In other words, humans and natural environments have an intrinsic relationship, even in many urban settings where our ecosystems face habitat degradation due to unsustainable interferences.
However, the good news is that environmental awareness is starting to become increasingly prevalent in our urban populations as time goes on!
“Green city” development is becoming more and more prevalent. This is where developers take into consideration the enrichment of biodiversity and environmental quality in urban corridors. These environmental objectives provide residents with better access to nature and open space, the provision of attractive walking, jogging, and cycling infrastructure, as well as other designs for tranquility.
In the 21st century, “Ecocinema”, or films that revolve around conveying environmental messages to the public, such as The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 2012 (2009) and Chasing Ice (2012), are gaining popularity for raising environmental awareness across the globe! Moreover, relatively new and creative ideas could also be taken from live surf cams that connect potential beach-goers to a variety of live tidal reports.
New environmental strategies such as the setup of cameras to capture live feeds of remote nature surrounding residential communities have emerged as a viable way to connect people with nature on the same temporal plane. By bringing remote real environments into virtual proximity, live feed broadcasts can be easily accessed via computers or smart devices. And this new way of getting a closer look at nature in real time may become a practical means of prompting spectators, especially from residential communities, to take interest in caring for their natural environments.
Famous broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough says that the live feeds serve as a means of “lifeline and communication” between us, and the natural world. All in all, these techniques, whether old or new; physical infrastructure or technological devices; hold pivotal importance to fostering neighborhood character and a sense of pride within a healthy community.
To find out more about the idea of nature cams, visit: https://www.dacast.com/blog/how-to-set-up-live-animal-cam/; http://deerlab.com/blog/trail-camera-placement-strategy ; https://www.whitetailhabitatsolutions.com/blog/top-10-trail-cam-strategies .
Who knows? You might be tempted to give it a go yourself!
REFERENCES
“Connecting To Nature – What Does This Mean And How Do You Do It?”. Humanature Connect, 2013, https://humanatureconnect.com/2013/09/10/connecting-to-nature-what-does-this-mean-and-how-do-you-do-it/.
Department of Sport & Leisure. “Open Space Strategy”. Casey.Vic.Gov.Au, 2015, https://www.casey.vic.gov.au/council/policies-strategies/m-o/Open-Space-Strategy.
“How To Set Up Your Own Live Animal Cam”. Dacast, https://www.dacast.com/blog/how-to-set-up-live-animal-cam/.
Lam, Stephanie. “14. IT’S ABOUT TIME: SLOW AESTHETICS IN EXPERIMENTAL ECOCINEMA AND NATURE CAM VIDEOS.” Slow Cinema (2015): 207.
Murray, Robin, and Joseph Heumann. “Limits And Possibilities Of Ecocinema And Ecocinema Studies”. Ejumpcut.Org, https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc55.2013/MurrayHeumanEcocinema/index.html.
“Top 10 Trail Cam Strategies”. Whitetail Habitat Solutions, https://www.whitetailhabitatsolutions.com/blog/top-10-trail-cam-strategies.
“Trail Camera Placement Strategies For Different Times Of The Year”. Deerlab, http://deerlab.com/blog/trail-camera-placement-strategy.
Images obtained from pixabay.com
