For most of the time humans have lived on this earth, they have been in natural places. In terms of the history of humanity, urbanisation, from the founding of the earliest agrarian societies and states in Mesopotamia to the heavy industrialism of the 18th and 19th centuries, is relatively new. It is only during the last six to eight generations that people have predominantly made their living away from the natural land.

Considering this sense of deep, historical belonging, it is unsurprising that people generally thrive better, physically and mentally when they have the time and opportunity to be in natural spaces. Yet have we now arrived in a time in which most people, through the hustle and bustle of everyday life, feel disconnected from nature? It is probable that lessened time spent in natural spaces has led to an acceptance of a depleted baseline of habitat and species. Perhaps we might have simply got used to not seeing it, by not being in it.

Could it be possible this disconnection is in part responsible for the negligent management of many projects that affect nature and its vital role in our survival? Research done at Exeter University shows that people who have access to natural space, including parks and tree lined streets are more likely to make personal changes in order to protect the natural environment. Perhaps the Arts and Philosophy could also have a role in awakening us to this urgency.

The lack of consideration to think more holistically in the planning of some developments which support our lifestyle demands, dangerously contribute to the slipping away of vital biodiversity. We are facing unprecedented loss of ecosystems that are intrinsic to the natural processes of this planet. These ecosystems are necessary for the basic survival of its flora and fauna, including us. This has the greatest impact when the ecosystems destroyed are those that cannot be replaced within our lifetime.

Offsetting – the attempt to restore or create equal or larger areas of biodiversity elsewhere – is successfully pedalled by economic developers to restore the balance and ease this guilt. It is seductive. It lets us off the hook: we can carry on accepting the so-called benefits whilst believing we can make up for the loss without ever facing our responsibilities and need for restraint.

However, this offsetting will fail to equal the irreplaceable value of the areas of extensive and established ecosystems that are so significantly threatened by some acts of progress.

The incredible processes of these pockets of nature are key to the survival of life on this planet and solutions to the healthy processing of carbons and toxins. We need them for our quality of air, water and soil. Rather than diminishing and dividing, more work must be done to connect them so they can exist more successfully.

How much do they really matter in the long term? The intergovernmental science policy platforms on biodiversity and ecosystem services project that reduction in established ecosystems will drive around one in six life forms to extinction this century with severe consequences for humanity.

The intergovernmental panel on Climate Change warns that hundreds of millions of human lives will be at risk without radical restrictions in carbon emissions. Respecting the established ecosystems for the role they take in reducing carbons, presents an intelligent reason for their protection.

While there are many great and valiant efforts of conservation – beach cleaning, creations of meadows, wilding and tree planting – the depletion of long established eco systems weighs heavily in the balance. We cannot afford to lose any more.

We need to wake up to the real dangers of destroying these precious, life-sustaining established environments. We must lose our compliance and demand that our natural world is taken more seriously.

We need to fire up our personal mechanisms to appreciate the true value of natural systems that are impossible to replace within our lifetime, to fathom and express the notion of environmental loss: the vastness of its implications and paths we need to minimize it.

#irreplaceable is a hub website that invites people to come together through philosophy, poetry, writing, music, film and the visual and performing arts with the aim of helping us humans tap into our resources to explore and find what it takes to really care about those aspects of the natural world that are irreplaceable.

This could arise from identifying personal importance of particular landscapes and nature from our experience, our memories, our childhoods. It could be formed from the meaning we attribute to the places we know and the stories that flow from that meaning.

We believe in the reflective and transformative power of the Arts and hope that through the remembering, immersion and expression of how we are tied to nature will assist in a raising of consciousness and a demand in more sensitive project management. What we seek is…

Our optimism is that this will become an intrinsic part in the process of awakening and mobilising people to take action.

We hope that this is a beginning, strengthened through social media, of a new Whole World Movement that acknowledges and calls out for the irreplaceable, demanding an immediate responsibility of its care.

We are excited to invite you to use the website as a hub for creative work, the sharing of thought and project proposals.

We encourage you to use #irreplaceable wherever appropriate, to light the green fuse.