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For the  at Utrecht Science Week 2025, we asked students and visitors on campus: Who lives more sustainably - you or your grandparents? Their responses prompted deeper reflections on sustainability across generations, so we turned to experts to weigh in on the matter. 

As some in the video noted, younger generations are more aware of sustainability than ever before. Yet the impact humans have on Earth grew faster in the last decade than at any other time in the last 12,000 years!

We know, but we don’t act…

Ecologist Matthijs Schouten and environmental lawyer Jessica den Outer believe the reason for this conflict is our loss of connection with nature. To protect the Earth, we need to rebuild that bond - not just with facts, but with feelings and laws.

If you don’t experience nature, how can you ever be touched by its beauty?

Our footprint has exploded

 “When I compare our lives today with those of my parents, the difference is shocking,” says Schouten, now 72.

His parents didn’t have a car or fly, grew their own food, reused almost everything, and rarely bought anything new. “Sustainability wasn’t a concept back then. People simply lived with what they had and bought only what was needed.”

Today, he says, consumerism has transformed our habits. “As a child, we had three dessert options at the store. Now, I walk into a supermarket and see 60 kinds of yogurt. 

Why knowledge isn’t enough

As a child, Schouten spent entire days roaming in nature. But those days seem to be long gone. “Many Dutch children rarely experience wild nature,” he says, visibly saddened. “If you don’t experience nature, how can you ever be touched by its beauty? Or feel a sense of responsibility for its decline and suffering? Facts alone won’t move us.” 

For Schouten, it’s extremely important that we reconnect with nature on an experiential and emotional level. But, like an unused muscle, building that connection requires practice.  

When nature has rights, we start seeing it as a partner to protect and respect.

Giving nature a legal voice

For Jessica den Outer, that bond with nature can also be reinforced legally. She’s a leading expert on the Rights of Nature movement, which grants legal rights to rivers, forests, and ecosystems.

“Law can reflect changing values,” she says. “When nature has rights, we stop treating it as property and start seeing it as a partner to protect and respect. In countries where these laws exist, nature gains a formal voice in decision-making processes – and communities and lawyers can step in to defend nature in court.”

A new relationship with the planet

For both experts the path forward is clear. “Granting legal rights to nature shifts the narrative: nature is no longer just a resource, but a stakeholder. That shift inspires more people to care, take action, and speak on behalf of nature,” says Den Outer.

Schouten adds: “When we start seeing the non-human world as a subject, rather than an object, compassion follows naturally,” says Schouten. 

In an age where we know more than ever how to live sustainably, it isn’t another fact about species becoming extinct that’s missing. What we need is to rekindle our bond with the natural world around us.

Correction (15 October 2025): An earlier version of this article did not accurately reflect the interviewee’s intended words. The quotation has been updated to read: “Many Dutch children rarely experience wild nature.”