When we love the earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully.

...we must consistently challenge dehumanizing public representations of poverty and the poor. Restoring to our nation the understanding that people can be materially poor yet have abundant lives rich in engagement with nature, with local culture, with spiritual values is essential to any progressive struggle to halt mountaintop removal

Nature was th eplace where one could escape the world of man made constuctions of race and identity.

...if we think of the natural landscapes that surround us as simply, blank slates, existing for humans to act upon them according to our will then we cannot exist in life sustaining harmony with the earth.

Estrangement from our natural environment is the cultural contest wherein violence against the earth is accepted and normalized. If we do not see earth as a guide to divine spirit, then we cannot see that the human spirit is violated, diminshed when humans violate and destroy the natural environment.

We must all decolonize our minds in Western culture to be able to think differently about nature, abut the destuction humans cause.

The earth, like all of nature, could be life giving but it could also threaten and take life, hence the need for respect for the power of one's natural habitat.