A War for Survival

Most of our lives we hear stories about how the human race must defeat nature to survive, how the climate, the wild animals, the plants, viruses, everything in our world wants to destroy us. Corporations have public relations departments that work year-around telling us stories about how they exist for our benefit to overcome the catastrophic elements on the planet and defend us in this struggle. Suppose we look at this conundrum from a different perspective. Suppose nature is doing exactly what it should be doing, seeking balance without any of the human qualities—greed, random violence, selfishness, power, solipsism or the hegemonic notion that one species has a god-given right to dominate all others— distorting its harmony. Is it possible that we aren’t fighting nature for our existence, but rather, the natural world is fighting us for its survival?

Picture this: An orangutan, one of those critically endangered species already, lay on a jungle floor in the fetal position that burned human bodies so perfectly assume. I know this, having seen human bodies crackled and crispy as the result of napalm in the jungles of Vietnam. But this great ape is alive. Bright red streaks of exposed flesh run the length of its arms and legs where the hair and skin has been singed off by manmade fire. The right forearm is curled over the eyes and the face hidden as if the animal is ashamed from some wrongdoing and submissively, but agonizingly, accepting just punishment from its master. The master is a jack-booted thug standing over the suffering beast. Beneath the photo the caption reads something on the order of “make way for palm oil plantations.”

I’m not embarrassed to say that I felt sad when I saw this photo and wanted to cry. Partially because the image was so human in its misery it reminded me of Vietnam and partially because this majestic, intelligent creature with a rich social and family life and DNA over 90% the same as mine suffered so much. What was this palm oil? What was the urgency that required the destruction of intelligent beings with which we shared this planet? I read on and my sadness shifted to anger.

Palm oil comes from the fruit of the African palm oil tree and is used heavily in parts of Africa and other places for cooking. It isn’t particularly healthy. It doesn’t taste all that good. We have countless other products that serve the same purposes much better. Yet, it appears in over 50% of our consumer products. So, what’s the advantage? It can be grown and produced cheaply and you can harvest a lot more of it than other natural oils from the same amount of ground. Investors in huge palm oil plantations throughout Malaysia and Borneo stand to make a fortune on their investments the more this product is used. Some investors are now touting it as an alternative biofuel to replace our dependency on petroleum products. While that sounds good, the fact remains that palm oil leaves a bigger carbon footprint that fossil fuels. It isn’t being marketed as a better ecological choice, but rather as something not gasoline.

For profit and nothing else, the human race is destroying twenty square miles of rain forest every day. In some places, the orangutan gets in the way. In other places, indigenous people get ripped from their homes and displaced. Magnificent animals beyond just the orangutan face imminent extinction, the Sumerian tiger for one. I’m not a tree-hugger. I accept that this is a huge problem and cause for immediate concern. But it isn’t our only critical issue. We have more—war, famine, refusal of healthcare, extreme poverty, climate change, etc.—and all of them are symptoms of the one virus that will eventually destroy the planet, our human race.

Does it have to be this way? Are self-immolation and planetary destruction inevitable because of the human will to exercise power over everything and to acquire as much of the material world as possible, to own as many unnecessary things as possible? While this is not true of every individual member of any society, it is certainly true of many of the societies in the world and those who control the citizens of those societies, i.e. corporations and governments, by virtue of armies and economics.Even some of our most sacred books seem to give us the authority to use nature to the point of ruin for our own pleasure. These words were not written for the purpose of corrupting the earth, but they provide self-serving humans with an excuse. I guess the writers forgot that altruism is not an inherent human condition.

Genesis 1:26 – And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Luke 10:19 – Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Genesis 1:28 – And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Psalms 8:6 – Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

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“Remember when your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am going to place a successive human authority on earth.’” Quran, 2:30

There seems to be only one way to avert the coming catastrophe. That way is nothing new and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand it. That way is for us to self-correct our behavior as humans and demand our leaders in government, religion, and industry do the same. Anyone with any common sense knows you can’t engage in the type of destructive behavior we currently do without consequences. Even children learn this at a very young age.

I’m trying to practice what I preach, and I hope to get better at it. If you’re confused as to where you might start altering your attitude and behavior toward these topics, I can only share with you what has helped me to understand first how we got here and where we might go. Read. I can say this as an expert because I am an expert at reading books. It’s an opinion, but a learned one, which makes it worthy of consideration. It’s also one of the least expensive and least dangerous ways to get an education. Buy a few books. Here’s some suggestions, old and new, that are accessible to people like us. We’re not scientists, but we should be concerned citizens:

The Greening of America by Charles Reich

Silent Spring, The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

Fen, Bog, and Swamp by Annie Proulx

The Overstory by Richard Powers – this is a Pulitzer Prize winning fiction novel.

Some of the books on the environment are recent. But the first three I listed are all over fifty years old. So, we can’t really pretend we didn’t foresee this problem. Can we? If you don’t like or can’t afford to buy books, try a community library, or put one on your Christmas list. Even an old alcoholic will tell you that the first step in curing a problem is admitting there is one. But remember, like any self-destructive action, there is always a point beyond which bad behavior can’t be undone.