human beings have always overrated themselves in that they assume they are superior creatures whose destiny is granted by god. in the early times, nature was antithetical to human activities. no longer can the righteous people look on without taking an action.
human beings have always overrated themselves in that they assume they are superior creatures whose destiny is granted by god. in the early times, nature was antithetical to human cultures. people set out to conquer nature: they plowed the soil for grains to feed themselves; they fought against storms and tornadoes to safeguard their properties; they made use of tools to exploit natural resources. this struggle against nature precludes the understanding that nature is so generous to humans and it is harmony rather than conflict that has made human lives so comfortable. if the ancestors had not found ways to cope with natural disasters and bucked up again and again in face of peril, it would have been likely that human race might have gone extinct on the way of evolution.however, as human beings get more and more used to the development in their own societies, they,on the contrary, contribute to a nature that is increasingly dissonant and hostile, where other co-existing species are on the edge of extinction.
it is not the natural evolution, like the glaciers, that caused many species to disappear. it is human activities that is to beblamed. deforestation deprives many bird colonies of their habitat. water pollution destroys the natural environment of aquatic animals. unimaginable numbers of species have to migrate and in search of new habitat, and they die. gulls and other seabirds stranded in the crude oil from ships could not fly to collect food,they die. when furs and hides of cheetahs, rhinos, and crocodiles are sold at good prices on the international market, they die. the prosperity of human society is bloodily indebted to lives of other plants and animal species, yet human beings keep from saving the animals and plants. the money spent on protection of endangered species is money spent worthwhile. so is the effort and time. just imagine one day another intelligent species wearing the leather of human skin.
in the history of human civilization, people have always relied on nature to achieve something of value. fundamentally, we breathe the oxygen released by the plants; we enjoy the ravishing beauty of nature in our arts;we even rely on animals to produce experimental evidence in developing medicines. we owe too much to the plants and animals. it is high time that we did something to prevent the world from becoming a drab and colorless planet, with only the human species living in sheer loneliness.