Culture is first and foremost influenced by environment.  No people, or culture, can exist without air, water and food, and all of these are not just in existence on their own, but themselves completely determined by climate, geography, pollination, bio-diversity and more.

Invasions by others, be they insects or people, are what most diffuse, and often assimilate other cultures into mixed bags of many different sights, sounds, and styles.

When life arises, it creates creation, an artwork, or culture, of itself. LIfe on earth arose, and immediately began to copy down those factors that seemed significant to survival. Thus, some of the earliest artwork depicts what hunters and gatherers cared most about.  Today we care more about our hand held devices. This can become problematic for cultures everywhere.

Human culture came out of nature, but for the first few billion years  earth culture was completely on its own. Art, music, and writing, even cities and agriculture are all domesticated versions of what already occurs in Nature.  Songs and music were inspired by birds, whales, even the breeze through meadows of reeds.  Art is an interpretation of nature rendered through our attempts to copy by “Artifice” from which the name itself is derived.

Even literature is a copy of what we interpret, and no writing could go far without the metaphors and similes we need to describe hot or cold, dry or wet, and so on.

One writer observed nearly twenty years ago that we do not have a two way relationship with the future.

This does not bode well, for culture, or for earth.  The future is dependent upon our caring enough about future generations, of forests, humans, and oceans,  Yet, we, sadly and to our own disadvantage are NOT dependent upon the future.  Never before in history has culture, and it’s patient mother, earth, been so in danger of being lost.

This is because we are becoming more and more mono cultural, with similar tastes, and fewer choices. All over the world one can hear the same type of music, the same Iconic art, and the same styles of dress.

Just one hundred years ago, this would have been a very culturally alien world. Diversity of customs, food, and all life itself would have many more versions and flavors for the world traveler.

Not all of it is the fault of technology that has linked the world with both air travel and wireless internet. In fact, these things do not hurt culture in and of themselves at all.  They offer the opportunity for more diversity, but it is insatiable drive for “the good life” which is imaginary, and based on consumption, that is creating a devolving culture of scarcity.

Culture is always changing, and as treasures in museums attest, what was the cultural norm of yesterday is not likely to be unaffected by tomorrow.

In the natural environment, which is being rapidly depleted, the art, literature, music and poetry inspired by long gone tropical Edens, pristine forests, and even boundless oceans is being depleted as well.