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I wonder to what extent this unfortunate, outdated, and dysfunctional attitude toward Nature is biblical.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.

We Love to Kill Things

We love to kill things.

We put herbicides and pesticides on our lawns. Yeah, kill those weeds! Kill those nasty grubs! (There is a TV commercial for a weed-killer chemical that shows a man with his spray wand, photographed from a low angle—making the man look like a warrior or a superhero.) Never mind that we might be killing beneficial insects, worms, butterflies, and even birds.

Then there is "recreational hunting." The very term is shocking to me. One hundred years ago (and probably still today to a lesser degree) the "Great White Hunter" would go on safaris in Africa to shoot lions, tigers, elephants—with the result that today there are very few tigers left in the world and elephants are much reduced in population. And this is true of many other animals. (It must be admitted that habitat destruction, usually as a result of growing human populations, is also a big factor in the decline of a lot of species of wildlife.) Many animals were hunted to extinction. Bison, which had roamed the Plains in huge herds and numbered in the millions, were reduced to only a few individual animals. The passenger pigeon also numbered enormous flocks—and now they are totally extinct.

Scientists--both self-styled and apparently real scientists--were not immune to the lure of killing. They would kill birds to study them. They used a gun called a "fowling piece." That's how all the dead birds in museum collections came to be there.

There were some online comments about people who will deliberately run over turtles in the road. And this happens also with squirrels, opossums, and lots of other animals, of course. A lot of "roadkill" does not result from unavoidable accidents but, sadly, many a driver is apparently playing Great White Hunter while driving his car.

Some people just don't like wildlife. I have a friend like that. He destroyed a bird's nest on my property before I could stop him, and not long ago when we saw a garter snake, he moved toward it with some hostile intent before I did, this time, stop him.

So there is this attitude that hates or fears Nature and the Wild. In the Nineteenth Century and through the middle of the Twentieth and still today there has been this idea of Man triumphing over Nature, of "taming" it. So we build dams, dig canals, bulldoze mountains--do a lot to rearrange the landscape.

Fortunately there is a growing recognition that the welfare of Man—Homo sapiens—is very closely tied up with that of the rest of the natural creation. Thus we have the environmental and conservation movements.

Some individuals show even a Hindu-like respect for life. When my boyfriend is here, if there's an insect in the house, he tries to capture it (and succeeds!) and then releases it outside.

This philosophy can be taken to what many people would consider extremes. I once knew a guy who would not kill cockroaches in his apartment. The result was that the wall in his kitchen was pretty literally wallpapered with cockroaches. On the one hand I admire his reverence for life, but many people would say that there are sanitation considerations involved here. I have no problem with capturing bugs to release them outside, as my friend does; although, I'll admit, when he's not here I'll swat that fly or squash that bug.

Update July 15, 2013.
Given the time of year that it is, I inevitably have had some flies in my house. I got out the ol' fly swatter and dispatched a couple of them. Then I was watching one and started to feel sorry for it and see its intelligence. They'll crawl along a window, thinking--reasonably enough--that the daylight or what looks like the outdoors that they can see on the other side of the glass is the key to finding their way outside. Well, I tried A.'s method of catching them and, after one or two tries, I did catch it and released it outside. It felt good to have preserved its life. I hope Someone is alloting me some good karma for that.

Update July 18, 2013
I am somewhat surprised at myself for my failure to mention Homo sapiens' propensity for killing members of his own species. Not only is modern man arguably quite warlike, but modern archeological research has been producing evidence that Man has always been warlike. The very word war evidently is not abhorrent to the great majority of Americans; if it were, our government would not so blithely deliver to us a War on Poverty, War on Drugs, etc. Of course these "wars" (at least in principle) do not kill anyone, but I simply ask you to think about the choice of words.

Copyright © 2013