We tend to think of ‘nature’ as a kind of stage, with colourful plants as the background scenery, animals as props, and humans as the cast of actors. We imagine humanity as separate from and superior to the so-called ‘natural’ world - the only true ‘agents’ in a storehouse of exploitable resources. To seriously tackle the climate crisis, we need to better understand the history of this idea, and deconstruct the worldviews that it has generated.