Historical evidence for nature disconnection in a 70-year time series of Disney animated films

Abstract

The assumed ongoing disconnection between humans and nature in Western societies represents a profoundly challenging conservation issue. Here, we demonstrate one manifestation of this nature disconnection, via an examination of the representation of natural settings in a 70-year time series of Disney animated films. We found that natural settings are increasingly less present as a representation of outdoor environments in these films. Moreover, these drawn natural settings tend to be more and more human controlled and are less and less complex in terms of the biodiversity they depict. These results demonstrate the increasing nature disconnection of the filmmaking teams, which we consider as a proxy of the Western relation to nature. Additionally, because nature experience of children is partly based on movies, the depleted representation of biodiversity in outdoor environments of Disney films may amplify the current disconnection from nature for children. This reduction in exposure to nature may hinder the implementation of biodiversity conservation measures.

From Egoism to Ecoism: Psychedelics Increase Nature Relatedness in a State-Mediated and Context-Dependent Manner

“…Urbanisation is increasing globally [4] and this may be acting to cut people off from nature [5,6]. This growing disconnection from the natural environment appears to be explained, in part, by the increasing usage of electronic entertainment technology [7,8], and is reflected by a shift in Western cultural products away from nature-based content in media such as books, music, and film since the 1950s [9,10]. Considering the global burden of mental health problems, depression being the leading cause of disability worldwide [11], plus the ongoing mass extinction and environmental destruction our planet's inhabitants are currently suffering due to human actions, identifying an effective way of enhancing nature connectedness would potentially be of great benefit to human well-being and the environment at large [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

Conceptos e infraestructuras didácticas en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la biodiversidad en Educación Infantil: análisis de la situación en Asturias

“…La biodiversidad es un concepto que se cree ampliamente conocido, o por lo menos ampliamente comentado en la sociedad y la escuela, así como una necesidad de conservación ambiental. Y, sin embargo, algo en estos procesos no acaba de funcionar en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje implementados, cuando nos encontramos cada vez más alejados de la naturaleza (Kesebir & Kesebir, 2017;Prévot-Julliard, Julliard & Clayton, 2015;Pyle, 2003), relación que se considera imprescindible para poder conseguir un desarrollo óptimo en la infancia (Corraliza & Collado, 2011;Torres-Porras et al, 2017).…”

Environmental Realism

“…Science has thereby reduced experiential understanding of biophysical phenomena (Prevot-Julliard 2015;Louv 2008). Science has thereby reduced experiential understanding of biophysical phenomena (Prevot-Julliard 2015;Louv 2008).…”