As a species, we are unique and very far removed from the rest of the animal kingdom. Through evolution, our large brains provided everything we needed and allowed us to build a comfy society.
But that’s really all we have. We don’t have super senses like most other animals or natural tools for survival (fur, fangs, claws, etc). We don’t have the instincts other animals have to survive. Nope, we have the ability to think, plan and create.
Nature (those non-human animals, plants, etc) seems to just go on it’s merry way, unchanging from one generation to the next. Living things exist for a while, reproduce if they can, and die – their remnants recycled right down to the element level to provide building material (food, fertilizer, etc) for something new.
It’s a perfect plan.
Well, for most things in nature anyway. I cringe at the thought of having to survive using only what raw materials I could find. If it were like that, I doubt we’d be here at all.
Yes we are different from just about every other living thing on the planet. Most animals build their own shelter using what’s available. Whether it’s building a nest from grass or digging a burrow for a safe home underground, everything is made with what is available. Should the nest be abandoned, nature will simply recycle it.
Then there is us.
We basically use our big brains to create what we need from the raw material provided by the earth. By doing this, we have built a civilization that is very different from how other animals live – it’s like we’re not even on the same planet.
In a sense, we have managed to isolate ourselves from the brutality of nature, but also cut off from nature at the same time.
Let’s face it, as much as we love the outdoors and would like to be closer to it, the reality is that we would likely parish if it were not for our civilization.
Imagine loading up a backpack with essentials and walking into the wilderness to live permanently? How long would you survive? What happens when your rations run out? Would you be able to kill your food and make a sturdy shelter? What happens if you get sick? Would you become food for a stronger and more deadly apex predator?
Your excursion into the bush is going to get real very fast. While anyone can throw up a simple shelter, your real problem is going to be food. Everything else, like bathing in an ice cold stream, will seem like more of a nuisance in comparison.
Unlike most creatures, we don’t possess the skills and instincts to survive on this basic level. Most animals have abilities such as a heightened sense of smell, enhanced sight, and acute hearing to protect them and at the same time, find food.
We are accustomed to living in a civilization where there is a certain minimum level of comfort. Most of us have access to a shower, a toilet, heat and shelter from the elements. Food is available, even if you have little money.
We are soft and vulnerable in comparison. Our strength to weight ratio is extremely low when compared to just about every other animal.
Yet, we have managed to control the planet for some time now. And that is because of our intelligence. Sure, we have endured hardship in getting here, but ultimately, we succeeded.
Having said all that, can we really celebrate our achievements when our activities are contributing to the demise of the planet and all other living things?
As mentioned, nature has a very efficient way of recycling matter. Something dies and that material is used by something else. The material that makes us who we are is nothing more than a collection of leased elements that will, one day, go back to the earth. It’s not our system and we have little influence over it. Yet, it’s the reason there is life at all.
So what’s the problem?
Well, at one point, we might have been in harmony with nature, but that has long passed. Today, our species is on a never ending quest to improve our quality of life, even though it’s completely unnecessary and is doing real harm to the planet.
We demand more. We thrive to be more. We are unable to simply stop and appreciate the fact that we have created everything we need – and more.
And that quest for bigger, better and more luxurious is killing our world. We are out of tune with nature and the way life is really meant to be.
But how do we stop? Can we stop? I honestly don’t think we can. It is in our nature to consume and never be satisfied.
Some day, we’ll be gone and it will be for this reason. Nature will brutally shed us, and though the planet may have sustained damaged, it will recover and carry on with the life, reproduction, death, recycle system that has worked for billions of years.
