What did nature do for you on Earth Day?

Wageningen (NL): Today is Earth Day for some of us (it seems that amidst the daily hustle & bustle, humanity does still require one official day a year to reflect on the planet). For eyes4earth, it is also two years to the day since we first publicly launched ‘The Question’ – “What did nature do for you today?”  Since then, we’ve received hundreds of enlightening responses (more than we have been able to post online). And these responses have given us many unexpected insights into how individuals across society perceive the benefits they receive from nature as well as their understanding of the concept of ‘ecosystem services’.

We thought it was appropriate today to post our first ever response received to ‘The Question’ – which we recorded in Arnhem (The Netherlands) on Earth Day in 2007. Unfortunately, we don’t know the name of this Native American university professor but would like to thank her again for this contribution which, in our view, remains one of the most insightful responses we have received to ‘The Question’ during the past two years. It also illustrates a far more unifying and holistic understanding of how we could collectively view and apply the concept of ‘ecosystem services’.