From Parklane Landscapes
Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) is what happens when we forget how vibrant the natural world used to be. Each generation grows up with a more depleted environment and calls it "normal," simply because it's all they've ever known.
Think about walking through a park and thinking, "This seems healthy." But maybe 30 years ago that same park had twice as many birds, wildflowers, or insects. If you never saw that version, you don't feel the loss - and that quiet forgetting becomes the new baseline. Over time, we start accepting degraded ecosystems as normal.
Researchers warn that this shift lowers our expectations, increases our tolerance for decline, and reduces our urgency to protect what's left.
What helps:
Intergenerational conversations that reconnect us with what nature used to be.
Direct experiences with nature that sharpen our awareness of change.
Remembering (knowing) the past is the first step to restoring the future.
Not a sponsor, I don't think it's an AI graphic, and I think it has something important to say. Plus it does have an owl. We can't save our animals if we don't save them the spaces they need to thrive.
I have wondered for years now why we can't do public works programs like this anymore. If things keep regressing, we may just have them again but under less than ideal circumstances.
My work with animals has been some of the hottest, grossest, smelliest work I've ever done, but it's also been the most rewarding even though working there costs me money. All my standard work labor feels like it goes off to some vaguely anonymous rich person, but the animal work lets me see those that I'm helping and the end result of my efforts and there's no denying it makes my community a better place.
For a country that loves to tout itself as the best, we really like to let it go to shit. 🤔