"we believe that what happens to nature is fundamentally external to the concerns of humanity". I need to think more about this but it may be an example of rather flawed thinking. I think that nature is indifferent (I know this is personalising, so should be reframed) to the concerns of humanity and that that is binary thinking worth che…
"we believe that what happens to nature is fundamentally external to the concerns of humanity". I need to think more about this but it may be an example of rather flawed thinking. I think that nature is indifferent (I know this is personalising, so should be reframed) to the concerns of humanity and that that is binary thinking worth checking out? (concerns of nature v concerns of humanity, nature being anything organic which is not people).
We are about as significant as a rough asteroid, which, after all, may have us helped us blossom while destroying much else.
Nature in all its infinite variety will suffer and thrive with or without us - maybe better without the bit of nature which is us. All the fantasies about our power in this regard are a form of grandiosity. Makes for lots of journalism and book making though....
You raise some interesting points, Anne. Not least the resilience of nature and the fact of humanity being a broadly insignificant blip in the vast timeline of the universe. But I still think that for the short time that each of us is here on Earth, and the slightly longer but still short time that our species inhabits this planet, we should learn to treat it with a bit more respect. Just as I'd hope that anyone who moved onto my street would treat their neighbours with kindness and respect – however long or short they intended to reside here – I hope that humans can be decent neighbours to the rest of life on Earth! And I think seeing ourselves as "part of" rather than "apart from" is a pretty good place to start.
Who really knows what being polite to all our billions of neighbours actually consists of? People currently approve of trees and destroy more effective carbon sinks like grassland to plant more of them.
And if I were a tree I would love to have more carbon dioxide (they are having a great time on the increased carbon dioxide but hey - we can't let them have that!)
We are pushing our own agenda, not that of the planet or necessarily anything else that we like to believe we are.
"we believe that what happens to nature is fundamentally external to the concerns of humanity". I need to think more about this but it may be an example of rather flawed thinking. I think that nature is indifferent (I know this is personalising, so should be reframed) to the concerns of humanity and that that is binary thinking worth checking out? (concerns of nature v concerns of humanity, nature being anything organic which is not people).
We are about as significant as a rough asteroid, which, after all, may have us helped us blossom while destroying much else.
Nature in all its infinite variety will suffer and thrive with or without us - maybe better without the bit of nature which is us. All the fantasies about our power in this regard are a form of grandiosity. Makes for lots of journalism and book making though....
Let me know the flaw in my logic? Xxx
You raise some interesting points, Anne. Not least the resilience of nature and the fact of humanity being a broadly insignificant blip in the vast timeline of the universe. But I still think that for the short time that each of us is here on Earth, and the slightly longer but still short time that our species inhabits this planet, we should learn to treat it with a bit more respect. Just as I'd hope that anyone who moved onto my street would treat their neighbours with kindness and respect – however long or short they intended to reside here – I hope that humans can be decent neighbours to the rest of life on Earth! And I think seeing ourselves as "part of" rather than "apart from" is a pretty good place to start.
Who really knows what being polite to all our billions of neighbours actually consists of? People currently approve of trees and destroy more effective carbon sinks like grassland to plant more of them.
And if I were a tree I would love to have more carbon dioxide (they are having a great time on the increased carbon dioxide but hey - we can't let them have that!)
We are pushing our own agenda, not that of the planet or necessarily anything else that we like to believe we are.