Transitions to sustainability require a transformation in society, and education, technology, and the circular economy are all important, but the simplest ingredient is healing the human-nature relationship. Without a transformation of how we look and connect with the world around us, technological innovation and economic systems will at best be palliative measures for a while and not really change.
The Stockholm+50 report highlights that one of the most important obstacles to change is that it is impossible to align economic and political systems with the realities of nature. Technology can develop, but ecological crises continue because policies are about short-term profit at the cost of long-term sustainability. Climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution are an inevitable outcome of a fragmented philosophy in which nature is something to be extracted as a commodity and not a web of relationships that we are utterly dependent upon.
By re-establishing such a connection, societies can create policy and economies that respect ecological limits. Such an example is found in indigenous cultures, as their traditions tend to favor fostering harmony between nature and human endeavors. If societies emulate these kinds of actions, for instance, by accounting for ecosystem services in their calculations and looking at nature-based solutions in planning, real sustainability becomes attainable.
Circular economy and technology are good tools, but not enough to bring the change of mind that is needed. Education is also in the picture, but education that is not accompanied by a change of values will still lead to unsustainability if economic and social systems continue to encourage overconsumption.
In the end, restoring our relationship with nature is the ground on which all other efforts at sustainability have to be established. Without it, economic and technological fixes can potentially be band-aids instead of transformative change. Only by seeing the inherent value of nature and starting from there can we create a fully just and sustainable world.