We are not different, separate or other than nature

Humans; at least those of European ancestry; like to speak as though nature is "other".  I seriously think that it is a part of our delusional superiority complex.  If a visitor from another planet were to listen to us they would be sure that nature was something very foreign, different and significantly separate from humans. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are not different, separate or other than nature. We are a part of nature and totally dependent upon the rests of nature for our survival.

Horror of horrors!  I've spilled the beans.  That just can't be, can it?

'Oh, but look at us,' someone might say. 'We live in houses, drive cars, use computers, build skyscrapers. We're not like nature. We don't need nature.' Wrong! We are not different, separate or other than nature. Everything in the house you build comes from the nature around you. Everything needed to make your computer is dependent upon nature. There is absolutely nothing that humans have that is not dependent upon the rest of nature.

This includes we ourselves. We are animals. No amount of religious rhetoric will change this reality. We're actually the new species on the block because we haven't been around nearly as long as most other species.  While it is an on-going study, current evidence is that homo sapiens sapiens (that's us) began to colonize the world outside of Africa as long ago as 125,000 years.  In 2010 evidence was discovered that we (homo sapiens sapiens) were mating with Neanderthals and Neanderthais. (i)(ii)  We are not nearly as unique as we think. There is only a 1.2% difference genetically between humans, chimpanzees (genus: Pan) and gorillas (genus: Gorilla). The three of us are all members of the Hominini tribe and Hominidae family.  (iii)(iv)(v)  The skeleton of every animal is amazingly similar and all work the same. Actually every living thing has DNA, including plants, and science is even thinking that they might need a new system of classification. We humans share 25% of our genes with a grain of rice. We are, like it or not, a part of nature. We are not different, separate or other than nature.

One of the most important ramifications of this reality is that whatever hurts nature, hurts us, because we are not other than nature. We share the same genes. If a chemical fertilizer kills plants, it will probably kill animals. We are an animal. Therefore, it will probably kill us. We are all a part of an interdependence; a symbiotic relationship. For example, thinking that we are smarter than nature, we killed all the wolves in Yellowstone National Park. The park began to die. When the wolf was returned to the park, environmental balance returned. Some try to deny it, but when you destroy all predators the ungulates over-populate (like people). They over-graze on vegetation which chases away birds and small animals which were the prey of predators like hawks. The loss of vegetation also changed rivers and streams. You have an environmental death spiral. The wolves returned, reduced the ungulate population, the vegetation returned, the small animals returned and the other predators returned. Ecological balance.

We are a part of this same type of action-reaction on a global basis. When we destroy other species, pollute the air and water, and cut vegetation essential to life on the planet, we are also destroying ourselves, because we are not different, separate or other than nature. Our technology is not going to keep us alive if we destroy nature, because our technology is totally dependent upon nature.

We will never get humans to give up luxuries, comforts and conveniences. Harsh reality. Harsher reality; viz. if we don't do something we are going to die. Doesn't it make sense to look for alternative ways of producing the energy and reducing our carbon footprint? Doesn't it make sense to accept our place as a part of nature and work to be a productive part of the whole instead of a destructive invasive species?

We are not different, separate or other than nature. One would not purposely violate or destroy themselves, but we do. We are killing ourselves along with everything around us.  If we are to survive as a species we must accept our place in nature and put all of our cleverness into becoming a productive member of the world. 

FOOTNOTES

(i)     Brown, Terence A. (8 April 2010). "Human evolution: Stranger from Siberia". Nature. 464 (7290): 838–39. Bibcode:2010Natur.464..838B. doi:10.1038/464838a. PMID 20376137.     

(ii)    Reich, David; Patterson, Nick; Kircher, Martin; Delfin, Frederick; Nandineni, Madhusudan R.; Pugach, Irina; Ko, Albert Min-Shan; Ko, Ying-Chin; Jinam, Timothy A.; Phipps, Maude E.; Saitou, Naruya; Wollstein, Andreas; Kayser, Manfred; Pääbo, Svante; Stoneking, Mark (2011). "Denisova Admixture and the First Modern Human Dispersals into Southeast Asia and Oceania". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 89 (4): 516–28. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.09.005. PMC 3188841 . PMID 21944045. Hebsgaard MB, Wiuf C, Gilbert MT, Glenner H, Willerslev E (2007). "Evaluating Neanderthal genetics and phylogeny". J. Mol. Evol. 64 (1): 50–60. doi:10.1007/s00239-006-0017-y. PMID 17146600.

(iii)   Wood, Bernard; Richmond, Brian G. (2000). "Human evolution: taxonomy and paleobiology". Journal of Anatomy. 197 (1): 19–60. doi:10.1046/j.1469-7580.2000.19710019.x. PMC 1468107 . PMID 10999270.

(iv)      Ajit, Varki and David L. Nelson. 2007. "Genomic Comparisons of Humans and Chimpanzees". Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2007. 36: 191–209: "Sequence differences from the human genome were confirmed to be ∼1% in areas that can be precisely aligned, representing ∼35 million single base-pair differences. Some 45 million nucleotides of insertions and deletions unique to each lineage were also discovered, making the actual difference between the two genomes ∼4%."

(v)   Ken Sayers, Mary Ann Raghanti, and C. Owen Lovejoy. 2012 (forthcoming, october) Human Evolution and the Chimpanzee Referential Doctrine. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 41