Man and Nature

For a good deal of the most recent human history, Man's attitude toward Nature has been, "Cut that forest, drain that swamp, dam that river. Dig a canal here, plow that prairie under." These actions probably reached their peak in the nineteenth and most of the twentieth centuries, but they're still going on. Man believed that he could and should "control" Nature, and there was even a fear or dread of the wild. We talked about dominating and controlling Nature. It was "development." It was civilization.

However, we have begun--maybe only in a small way--to realize that what we have done to Nature has frequently had unforeseen, bad consequences. Cutting down our forests has meant that we don't have the ground covered with trees which filtered the water that we humans might eventually drink, and absorbed water that otherwise might cause floods. Plus, trees have sequestered carbon, and getting rid of them means more CO₂ in the atmosphere, which adds to global warming.

Draining swamps similarly has had negative impacts on the land's hydrology, meaning, again, absorption of water that otherwise might contribute to floods.

Damming rivers and streams has impacted the ability of some fish species to spawn. More generally, all of these means of "managing" or "controlling" Nature have almost always had an impact on wildlife, for example eliminating habitat for waterfowl.

I wonder to what extent this unfortunate, outdated, and dysfunctional attitude toward Nature is biblical. Genesis can be read as granting Man dominion over all of Nature and wildlife: they are for Man to use and enjoy (and, to interpret that in the vocabulary of a modern capitalist society, to exploit for profit).

In recent times and in some places, there have been signs of a changed attitude toward Nature. (Native Americans have always had a much better, respectful attitude toward Nature; but unfortunately they and their ideas were not given much respect by European settlers.) We have gotten rid of dams, but probably mainly small ones. All the great dams built in recent times are still standing and, in fact, in many places in the world dam building is proceeding apace. We still think we can engineer our way out of flooding and we are looking to science for remedies for most of the problems that we (science, engineering, etc.) caused in the first place.

The core problem is too much tampering with Nature and, even back of that, too many people in the world who are demanding land to live on, water to drink, etc.

Copyright © 2018.

Modified November 30, 2018.
Update, January 17, 2019. I recently came across a quote from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas (whose name might be more widely known today than it was in her lifetime because the now-infamous high school in Parkland, Florida, the scene of a school shooting, was named after her. In her time she was known as a writer and conservationist):

We have a hard time believing that Nature would be in a good state without our manipulation.

Of course, Nature usually does quite well without our interference and  in fact is usually the worse for our efforts--as this posting has tried to show.