What if we personify nature? Imagine that it is angry. What if we have done too much to hurt nature; built too many houses, polluted too much air? What if nature is angry and retaliating?
Do we have to personify it to see it in this way? Isn't this exactly what is happening? Nature, the environment, can no longer take the pressure we have put on it. The recent disasters – the typhoons, the Hurricanes – are a result of what we have done, of how we have ruined nature. We don't have to give nature our human qualities to see what it happening.
Where have humans come from anyways? Nature created us. Through years of evolution we came out with a mutation no other thing or creature had – a big brain. We have been able to gain power over all the other creatures, over diseases, even over nature to some extent. But in the end, we have ruined this planet. Now that we are beginning to suspect the damage we have caused, we’re saying, “Let’s go to Mars. Is there water on Mars? Can we live on Mars?” Are we just going from one planet to the next, leaving them ruined along the way, like carelessly jumping from one relationship to the next, breaking one heart, and moving on to break the next one? Is this all our big brains have given us, is this all we are capable of?
We have evolved to have big brains and we have learned how to use them, but in the end, what have they given us? We have destroyed our own planet and all the other living things on it. And unless we go to Mars, and then onto the next planet, and manage to keep surviving and moving on in this fashion, we will destroy ourselves. Our big brains will kill us.
Let’s think about all the great things our brain power has given us: solutions to diseases, the knowledge to produce technology. The technology has polluted the environment and is threatening the planet, the diseases have evolved and died out along with us. Perhaps some of these diseases would never have evolved if we hadn't gone so far out of nature? I'll try to personify nature again. Nature has long known that we are on the path to destruction and it has punished us along the way with various diseases. Diseases that we have overcome so far. But at some point we won't be able to keep up with it, we won't be able to overcome everything nature throws at us. We cannot deny that nature is a stronger force then us humans.
If our brains have caused so much damage, where did they come from? Well, following Darwin’s theory, creatures have been evolving and this is what we ended up with. I say “end up” but is this the end? Evolution has gone on for millions of years. Maybe we are just a small part of it. Maybe our brains are like those giraffes whose necks were not long enough to reach the leaves on the tallest trees. Maybe we were one of those mutations that was not good for survival, and now we are dying off.
Another question is what makes us think we should personify nature? Why do we think that prescribing human qualities to other things gives them additional validity? Nature is clearly the stronger force. Shouldn't we be nature-ify-ing things instead? To personify means to assign emotions and feelings to an object, or another creature. We assume that other things do not have these emotions, and that emotions make us superior. But what have our emotions achieved? Religion, love, hatred – they have all caused so much bloodshed, and have they done anything for the greater good? The people who refuse to utilize animal products because they feel sad for the animals that have to die for them, are they the only ones using emotions for the good of nature and other creatures?
Does nature have a brain? Does it have emotions? I guess not. But if you consider everything nature has done, it follows a path, guidelines, it makes sense. What have humans done that makes sense? Is there a stronger organ than the brain? And what in the end are we trying to achieve with our brains – power? Is there a stronger organ that we don’t have, that leads to survival? Does nature have that organ, should we be trying to figure out what it is, and how we can attain it, how we can nature-ify ourselves?
I guess the question this all leads to is “What do we do?” Is there anything we can do? Do all of our questions and debates of politics, religion, family values really matter? Are we focusing on solving the wrong questions? Should we be thinking about learning from nature, about our survival? Should we be letting nature show us the way? Do we have any time left or have we made nature too angry?
One thing our brains have clearly done is “cracked the code” of nature. We have understood how it works. That speaks for something. To our knowledge, we are the only ones who have done so. But have we used this knowledge the wrong way? Is there a way for us to understand nature and coexist with it? Nature created us; why do we not take its ways into consideration when populating it?
In the grand scheme of things, is this just a little battle between humans and nature that has come out in a tie. Does nature eternally fight against its creations? Are there other little “humans” that are losing the battle somewhere else in the universe? Is this a repeating phenomenon? Other animals also destroy bits of nature, like beavers that cut down trees. But there are never enough of them to make a lasting impact, nature can recuperate. Humans, because our brains have created the technology to survive in times when other creatures would not, have overpopulated nature. It can no longer recuperate at the pace we destroying it. We have thrown it off balance, and it is doing the same to us.
I am not sure how many of these ideas are legitimate, but the basic question is real. Our mutation, our big brains are destroying our own world. As a result of our actions, nature is throwing us hurdles that we cannot handle. People are dying. Do we turn our brains the other way and pretend not to see, or do we use them to solve these big questions?
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