Civilization Isn’t Destroying Nature… It’s Part of It
Humanity is nature’s next step, and the machines and structures we build are as much a part of nature as the environment into which we place them.
How often have you heard someone claim that humans are “destroying” the Earth? Or that a new road, dam, or construction project is going to “damage” an ecosystem or “ruin” the landscape?
These are examples of an idea many of us never challenge: that humans and nature are opposed forces, in conflict with each other. The implication is that there was once an unspoilt green oasis, a kind of perfect nature. Then humans came along with our unnatural ways and started ruining it.
There’s a big problem with this: humans are natural. We’re animals, we evolved from other animals, and we’re as much a part of nature as any other species. What’s more, the thing that differentiates us from other mammals—our ability to use reason, create tools, build societies, invent technologies—is part of our nature.
The history of life on Earth is a history of constant change and progress. Before plant life evolved, the air contained far less oxygen than it does today. Life changed the very makeup of the atmosphere. Then animal life crawled out of the oceans and changed it again. As those early amphibians grew into reptiles, and those into mammals, dinosaurs, and birds, animal life grew more complex and continued to alter the world around it. Species outcompeted each other or hunted each other into oblivion. Herds of herbivorous dinosaurs ate their way through entire forests. Species crossed land bridges, radically altering the ecosystem in places such as South America. These creatures weren’t destroying nature; They were the next step in its evolution.
Eventually, one species of primate evolved a new kind of brain. This brain could think in concepts. It could make tools. Eventually, it figured out how to build cities, airplanes, nuclear reactors, even space stations. Once more, life radically altered the Earth.
Humanity is not a force from outside nature, laying waste to it. Humanity is nature’s next step, and the machines and structures we build are as much a part of nature as the environment into which we place them.
It’s true that we depend on nature for our survival. We also depend on it for our psychological health and for all kinds of other values. There are plenty of good reasons to care about and seek to preserve aspects of the natural environment. But we should not see it as something that must be preserved in its entirety, exactly as it happens to exist now. And we shouldn’t see our presence, or the things we build as we act in accord with our nature, as wrong or destructive. We should embrace the fact that life is a process of constant change and development, and that we represent the latest and greatest product of that process.