"Our ignorance of nature and the living world is a sign of human disconnection from nature."

There are many, many people around the world who have a firm grasp on natural processes, right down to the molecular level, because they deal with the natural world for a living. Do you really think that farmers, foresters, fisherman, zoologists, rangers, oceanographers, geologists, and many, many other scientists and specialists don't understand how nature works? Most of us don't have to know, so we don't.

Ancient people may have had a name for every species in their area, and knew whether they could eat them or not, but they didn't know what a cell, or bacteria, or carbon dioxide was since they couldn't see them. They didn't know what photosynthesis was, or what caused many illnesses. A lot of what they believed about the natural world was magical nonsense, and of course they only knew about the plant and animal life in their immediate area. An 8th grader knows more real information about the natural world than the greatest scientists of 500 years ago.

But yes, people are more likely to talk about football or the lastest mini-series than the natural world because they watched the game or saw the show. The vast majority of people have concrete or asphalt under their body the vast majority of the time, and that can't be changed.