The Relationship between Man and Nature
The Relationship between Man and Nature
People valued passenger pigeons and were a part of many aspects of human life and culture. Passenger pigeons populations were estimated at five billion individuals in North America during the 19th century. People ate their fatty meat, they used the feathers of passenger pigeons to stuff pillows and mattresses, people also hunted them for sport. In the end though, the last passenger pigeon in existence died at the Cincinnati Zoo in the spring of 1914. There used to be flocks of passenger pigeons that were a mile wide and up to 300 miles long, flocks so dense that they darkened the sky for many hours or even days. But, now people don’t miss them anymore, nobody except for the occasional history buff. People have learned to live without the passenger pigeon. People have destroyed the passenger pigeon and eliminated its benefits even though we didn’t have to. We made it impossible to use or see the beauty of the passenger pigeon ever again.
For the past 200 years people have consumed to extinction millions of organisms like the passenger pigeon. The extinction of life harms us and yet we cause it to happen. We’re chipping away at our own biological survival for sport and short-sighted corporate profiteering. The fact is the way that humans have decided to be connected to the natural world by destroying other organisms and harming ourselves is irrational. To save ourselves we need to reconnect with the natural world in a way that not only preserves us but also preserves organisms around us as well by living more of a minimalistic lifestyle.
In 1986 there was a nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl power plant in present-day Ukraine, leaving miles of land in radioactive ruins. Residents living in areas most contaminated by the disaster were displaced. Evacuated and relocated by government order and the region was left to its own devices. Over the course of 25 years, forests, marshes, fields and rivers reclaimed the land,
People valued passenger pigeons and were a part of many aspects of human life and culture. Passenger pigeons populations were estimated at five billion individuals in North America during the 19th century. People ate their fatty meat, they used the feathers of passenger pigeons to stuff pillows and mattresses, people also hunted them for sport. In the end though, the last passenger pigeon in existence died at the Cincinnati Zoo in the spring of 1914. There used to be flocks of passenger pigeons that were a mile wide and up to 300 miles long, flocks so dense that they darkened the sky for many hours or even days. But, now people don’t miss them anymore, nobody except for the occasional history buff. People have learned to live without the passenger pigeon. People have destroyed the passenger pigeon and eliminated its benefits even though we didn’t have to. We made it impossible to use or see the beauty of the passenger pigeon ever again.
For the past 200 years people have consumed to extinction millions of organisms like the passenger pigeon. The extinction of life harms us and yet we cause it to happen. We’re chipping away at our own biological survival for sport and short-sighted corporate profiteering. The fact is the way that humans have decided to be connected to the natural world by destroying other organisms and harming ourselves is irrational. To save ourselves we need to reconnect with the natural world in a way that not only preserves us but also preserves organisms around us as well by living more of a minimalistic lifestyle.
In 1986 there was a nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl power plant in present-day Ukraine, leaving miles of land in radioactive ruins. Residents living in areas most contaminated by the disaster were displaced. Evacuated and relocated by government order and the region was left to its own devices. Over the course of 25 years, forests, marshes, fields and rivers reclaimed the land,