Today I received an interesting email request for information. How would you answer the questions “What did nature do for you today?” or “What did you do for nature today?”

Coming from Matt Zylstra, he writes, “In around 5 weeks, the next Olympics begin — not the ones with healthy looking over-achievers who paraded in China — but the Olympics of Conservation…the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. Our eyes4earth initiative will be giving a workshop titled: “What did nature do for you today?” So we are asking — pleading! — for your creative help from all your various locations around the globe and help us showcase the most diverse responses possible… You can answer these questions yourself or you can ask friends, family or even strangers on the street. Or even any ‘famous’ people you might know. It is up to you how creative you want to be. Please tell us the date and exact place/location to which these questions relate (city/town name at least, but GPS /[X,Y / Long. Lat] /coordinates are even better — you can use GoogleMaps to help you). The answers can be in whichever way you like on whatever day you like in wherever place you like. The answers can be in a language other than English (but please send us an approximate English translation — especially if it is a language other than Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, German, Portuguese, French, or Italian). The answers can be done with more than just one person. The more responses we get the better!!!” Click their link to check out how others are answering The Question. They will accept pictures, video, audio, art work, or even text.

A group calling themselves Earth Collective has organized to “reinforce links between a healthy natural environment and human well-being” and they have set up the eyes4earth website. Should be fun and thought-provoking to read how different people answer The Question. Get your responses in no later than 23 September 2008.

With the increasing urbanization of cultures around the globe, people are losing touch, I mean real dirt-under-the-fingernails touch, with our natural world. Ask kids where milk comes from and they might tell you the name of a local grocery store.

But the disconnect goes further than that. What level of understanding do most people have about the services provided by ecosystems that sustain human life? Notice I didn’t say “help sustain” human life. Earth’s oxygen would be quickly be depleted if not for natural systems’ constant replenishment. The water cycle, the phosphors cycle, the carbon cycle all chug along thanks to wonderfully and fearfully integrated natural systems.

In short, human life is sustained by ecosystems that are largely taken for granted. Except when they break. Or get sick. Or cause us to get sick. When drought relief comes roaring ashore in the form of a tropical cyclone (hurricane) we tend to step back (or run for cover!) and breathe a collective “Whoa, Dude!”

We’ve heard the rhetorical question “Have you hugged a tree today?” relating to oxygen generation, carbon sequestration, cooling shade, wildlife habitat, sound abatement, water cycling/management, and fruit production services provided by those woody sentinals. Now we should add “Have you thanked an ecosystem today?” to the conversation.