What is the difference between an ant hill and a human city to a god or an extraterrestrial of superior intellect?

in #nature7 years ago (edited)

...if you ever use the term man-made, then you have been subconsciously conditioned to think of humans as not part of nature but as some form of gods.

Man-made

Google states that one of the antonyms for man-made is natural. I believe the term man-made was conceived by the conservation movement for the purpose of separating humans from nature in an attempt to hightlight the unnaturalness of human actions and their resulting impact on nature. The following citations loosely imply that the conversation movement preceded the term man-made:

The conservation movement can be traced back to John Evelyn's work Sylva, presented as a paper to the Royal Society in 1662.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_movement

The word (man-made) was apparently first recorded in 1710-20.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/man-made

Do not confuse man-made from Douglas-made, Bantu-made, Scottish-made or any other specification of individuals or groups among all humans who actually made something. Man-made is about as useful as god-made in specifying who actually made something.

I believe if you ever use the term man-made, then you have been subconsciously conditioned to think of humans as not part of nature but as some form of gods. Gods with the responsibility to conserve nature even at the expense of their own immediate well-being.

If humans qualify to be gods with the responsibility to conserve nature, then shouldn't they also have the corresponding right to exploit nature in a way that will allow them to thrive even if the exploitation is at the expense of other species? If humans thrive, they will be in a better position to conserve what is left of nature.

Humans as part of nature

We are here today because some species that came before us like the dinosaurs could not adapt to a new environment. Their absence from the Earth's ecosystem created evolutionary opportunities that allowed for us to come into existence.

What's the difference between our greedy actions and the big rock that wiped out the dinosaurs? A lot, but isn't it all just part of cosmic chaos? Part of nature?

Humans as a virus

Even viruses are part of nature, at least those that are not considered man-made. I believe our viral and exploitative nature is just as part of nature as ants building an ant hill. What is the difference between an ant hill and a human city to a god or an extraterrestrial of superior intellect? Aren't both the ant hill and the human city 'natural' structures built by inferior beings?


Image from tripadvisor.com

Our viral and exploitative nature has enabled us to increase surpluses, finance technology and improve productivity in a self fulfilling cycle. It is only when the elite were comfortable with their standards of living that they started to advocate for conservation measures. This was probably because of the research and tourism opportunities of biodiversity and their potential to improve the elites' standards of living in a more refined manner.

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