Chris Car

It is often said that the environmental problems on Earth (pollution, extinction of species, etc.) are caused by the fact that human beings put themselves over nature. Human beings want to define their own system and rules and nature has to succumb and follow theses rules which then leads to extinction and destruction of the fauna and flora. That leads to the argument that human beings should see themselves as part of the nature on this planet, in order to interact more carefully with the environment. Well, I agree, of course.

But still, if we look around us we can see the ongoing destruction of our planet. And there is almost no way of escaping it, even if we recycle, don’t use the car or simply consume less, it seems that we already crossed the point of no return.

And here comes my thesis: if human beings should see themselves as a part of nature, then everything they do is part of nature. They cannot act outside of the context of nature. So everything we created so far, even if it is polluting our planet big time, is part of nature as well.

Someone might argue that nature is not as destructive as the things which were created by human beings. But that’s not true. Nature can be as destructive as human beings. Some examples: what is more destructive than a meteorite hitting planet Earth and causing the ice age and a mass extinction of the fauna and flora? Or what if our sun suddenly stops shining which causes the beginning of a dark age on planet Earth? That’s very cruel, but it will happen in a distant future.

Everything in nature has a beginning and an end. We are born and we are going to die. Planets in the universe emerge and vanish. It’s just the natural life cycle. So I am not saying that it does not matter if we try to reduce our impact on planet Earth or not, but I think we are just one out of many destructive forces of nature. And maybe life time on planet Earth just runs out. But to add something positive: we did not only destroy, I think we created many good and beautiful things too!

But still, it is very important to try to minimize the impact on the planet, even if it’s our last task, in order to maintain a certain life quality until the end. But I am sure, if everything on planet Earth is completely destroyed, after some time, maybe millions of years, something new will grow from it, either on planet Earth and/or on another planet. And so it goes on forever.