By William Cramp Fit Flyer reporters | Your neighbors, friends, and relatives aren’t the only ones who are members of your community.
Baratunde Thurston says all other creatures belong to it, too.
“What affects them affects us,” says Baratunde, who is a TV host, writer, podcaster, and producer. “We’re members of natural societies. … We should be good neighbors to each other. All of us.”
Baratunde, who prefers to be called by his first name, fell in love with nature as a child. He biked and went on camping trips and family outings. “My mother got me to want to explore nature, but my teachers got me to literally want to learn more about it.”
He is passionate about the wonders of nature and why it is important to protect it. The animals and plants are “our fellow life forms,” he says.
“We depend on them for our sense of community and our sense of belonging, and sometimes for food and for our definition of home.”
Getting outdoors can make people feel better mentally and physically. For instance, researchers in Philadelphia found that planting more trees and beautifying vacant city lots led to a reduction in crime, an increase in feelings of safety, and more outdoor socialization and physical activity.
Spending “time in nature makes me feel physically much more vibrant and alive,” Baratunde told the William Cramp Fit Flyer. “It’s a real contrast to spending time with phones and computers, which often makes me feel stressed.”
For his TV show on PBS, “America Outdoors,” Baratunde’s producers find people who take care of nature. For instance, he has talked to a family in Minnesota who are breeding trees that can survive in warmer temperatures as the climate changes and becomes hotter.
On another episode of his show, Baratunde went fishing for salmon in Idaho with members of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe. “In their origin story, the salmon helped create them and helped them survive,” he says. “So they feel like they owe the salmon [and should] help the salmon survive. As the rivers have gotten warmer, it’s been harder for [the salmon] to do their annual salmon run.”
Baratunde says he hopes viewers learn that there are many ways to connect with nature: Grow herbs in your kitchen window. Ride a bike. Go to a park.
Nature, he says, “is accessible to all of us, no matter where you live.”
