Ecosexuality takes the idea of “getting back to nature” to its conclusion. While the term may vary depending on who you ask, it’s intended to celebrate and encourage humans to unite with nature, in sexual and non-sexual relationships.

From Skinny Dippers To Sexual Intercourse With Nature

Amanda Morgan, of the UNLV School of Community Health Sciences, who is involved in the movement, says that ecosexuality can be thought of as similar to the Kinsey Scale: On the lower end of the scale, it covers people who might seek to use sustainable sex products, or those who find skinny dipping and naked hiking a fun pastime. Going to the far end of the spectrum are, according to Morgan: "people who roll around in the dirt having an orgasm covered in potting soil. There are people who f*ck trees, or masturbate under a waterfall."

The Seeds of Ecosexuality

Honouring our bond with the natural world has been a long tradition in human history. Venetians, in the Middle Ages, for example, used to symbolically “marry” the sea. As a sexual identity, ecosexuality is a relatively new term. The word began appearing on online dating profiles in the late 1990s, as a way for daters to declare that protecting the earth is so vital to them, they want a partner who also cares about the issue too.

Like many pop culture movement's, Ecosexuality grew to prominence in the San Francisco Bay Area, partly because of the efforts of Bay Area performance artists, activists, and couple Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens. They published an "ecosex manifesto" on their website and made films on the topic. Sprinkle and Stephens believe ecosexuality is a new form of sexual identity, and say at least 100,000 people worldwide openly identify as ecosexuals.

Stephens and Sprinkle came up with a list of ways to “make love” to the earth, many of which are things we already do (or should). For example: Spend time with her. Smell her. Admire her views. Also included: mud wrestling, fire walking and “moon communion.”

Saving The Earth The Sexy Way

Giggling about humans having sex with nature may miss the point as society is still grappling with ways to change attitudes, combat climate change and come to terms with species and (our) potential extinction because of a man-made environmental crisis. As Morgan points out, thinking about the Earth as our lover, may just be the first step toward dealing with the problem seriously. "If you piss off your mother, she's probably going to forgive you. If you treat your lover badly, she's going to break up with you."

Sex as a powerful driving force, and could motivate people to make the environment a priority, since there won’t be much time for sex if you're running from floods, or fighting over food scraps in a barren wasteland.

With the future of our planet increasingly in peril, ecosexuals want us to examine the state of our relationship with the world in a much deeper way. Sex, of course, is a way to build deeper relationships with fellow humans, so why not the planet too?

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