ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with early human-Earth coexistence to the formation of settlement and use of natural resources. It argues that the separation between people and their environments went hand-in-hand with the establishment of settlement—a trajectory that continues today. The chapter reviews how human-environment separation created a psychogeography of dislocation and experience between humans and their environments leading to a disproportionate impact on the earth and its resources most notably from the 18th to the 20th century. It is argued that humanity’s progression towards mass urbanization has resulted in city populations ‘losing touch’ with their environments, blocking their sensitivity for a real understanding of human-Earth survival. As the world continues to shrink in terms of time-distance relativity, travel and communications, the gap between the so-called Global North and Global South increases through economic disparity and territorial protectionism. Where one quarter of the world’s population, two billion people, face extremely high levels of food and water insecurity due to climate change, a redistribution of wealth and freedom of migration to all people across the world needs to be a central focus in achieving global sustainability.
