People Need Nature. Nature Does Not Need People. Discuss.

“People Need Nature. Nature Does Not Need People.” What has this to do with cats? Everything, actually. It is a phrase that is becoming more and more relevant as international nature conservation becomes ever more pressing.

The idea behind the statement in the title is that we rely on the planet to survive but the planet would survive far more easily without us. The phrase was used by Harrison Ford, the actor, this morning, on BBC Four Radio.

Humankind abusing nature
Humankind abusing nature. Photo by BoyGoku

Humankind sees itself as above nature. We believe we can improve nature. This leads us to use and abuse nature, which in turn, leads to jeopardizing our survival.

If our actions jeopardize our survival, we cannot consider ourselves to be superior to nature. We need to take stock, reconnect with nature, become part of it and then we will be able to integrate with nature. We’ll become part of what the planet is. That is the way it must be.

At the moment we believe that we are the most intelligent animal on the planet but we are clearly not intelligent enough to manage that intelligence to good effect or in a sensible way or recognise the intelligence of our fellow creatures.

How does this relate to cats? It relates to cats in every way possible. The wild cats are part of nature. They live in habitats created by nature. We are destroying these places for commercial gain. Domestic cats are 99% wild cats. They need nature to feel normal and they need us.

Commerce and economic growth is not the panacea for all our ills. It can take us so far. At present it does not work. It feeds our greed and ultimately greed destroys nature. It doesn’t even work if you take nature out of the equation.

We must learn to respect nature and the cats, wild and domestic. We need to think differently to the politician’s mantra that we need economic growth. This is shortsighted and myopic. It is built on competition, which should be converted to harmonious, world wealth creation; working together rather than against each other.

We need a completely different way of living. It will happen. The change will be painful. Our cats will feel the pain with us because their world is our world.

18 thoughts on “People Need Nature. Nature Does Not Need People. Discuss.”

  1. oops, I mean -1, Marc. You were right.

    yeah the crops are in the fields and then stored … often in silos. but some is stored right in stable or barn. which = a building.
    Cats got domesticated because there was mutual benefit.

    Not that I am saying that all farmers / ranchers are totally humane in their treatment of the cats . but this fantasy that it is an old tradition that all farm kids are told to shoot cats for going anywhere near a building, is just silly. We sat on the porch swing playing with the kittens.
    And my family had been farming in the same county since the mid 1800s. so it’s not like some city slickers who just moved there.

  2. lol- you are being generous, I felt a minus -1 was in order. I agree with the 3. Perhaps it’s Cats 3 : Woody -1 then 🙂

    Also it’s good to hear from somebody who is the subject of the comment and who knows better. I have never heard of this idea that a cat should be near a building or not at all. It’s absurd and I’m glad being from a farming familly you have in fact never heard it either. It doesn’t make sense anyway.

    Futhermore I thought that in Egypt the cats were protecting the crops, not only the barn, from snakes and rats. So it was part of their job to be 50 yards away. You’d be in big trouble for killing a cat in that time and context.

    I think Woody goes with what sounds kind of real and makes sense but the irony is that it only seems to make any sense to him. I wonder if reality doesn’t make any sense to him which is why he finds the need to ‘re-apply’ it in a different form. He might need a friendly visit to the doctor. It’s actually quite funny to hear him use a word like ‘stewards’.

  3. Thanks – my sentences get garbled when I’m worked up. You think the same thing. Yes, ‘ancient’ ways and customs are just that, ancient, we should remember them and move on. They say old/indigenous people have a circular concept of time. We modern people have a linear sense of time which is further clouded by short sightedness. We are not able to care for our children’s children and their children. If we did we wouldn’t let them inherit a dying planet. We can’t care past our own lifetimes and what physically effects us. We have lost alot already, big time. This is a fantastic and hugely profound article and discussion. More people need to become at least involved in the discussion. We rely on education for that and we may be taught about it here in the developed west. But do you think in the huge rest of the world that is still trying to get what we have (a capitalist failure and breakdown) teaches students about the need to curb consumption and live more sparingly on a personal level. I doubt it. Developing countries need young people to crave the american dream – extra kids, extra cars and a few extra bedrooms for a start.

    I read a fantastic article in Time magazine many years ago. It went into numbers and years and so on. On the assumption that the US has created the standard and that all countries are trying to achieve the same ‘quality’ of life as the US, the planet was nolonger big enough to provide this for everyone in 1975. I read the article about 6 years ago and it said at the time of reading, in order for everyone on the planet to have what the average american has, we would need another 4 planet earths. We shot ourselves in the foot a long time ago and now its just a matter of time.

    If you can survive drinking half a liter of water a day, and you must cross the desert and you have enough water to last the 10 days it will take you to get to the other side then you would have to be incredibly stupid to drink most of that water on the first day.
    Apparently we are stupid. It really is as simple as that. We drank our water a long time ago and we aren’t going to make it.

  4. I see this world getting worse, not better, over time.

    Totally agree with you. Sometimes I wonder if it is just me being a bit grumpy. But I don’t think it is.

    At the moment the world is going badly wrong. It looks bad. Sometimes I lie in bed before falling asleep and think, “I hate the world”. This is not good for me. But so much seems wrong and crazy to me. All the basics seem wrong.

  5. I am currently convinced that humankind will eventually self-destruct and what a blessing it will be for the remainder of nature and this precious planet – this blue, jewel in space with a deep flaw at its heart: humans.

  6. Awesome comment.

    …they need to realise they are nature…

    I feel this is one of humankind’s major problems. We think we are above nature, removed from it and can do as we please with it. We think we can improve it and ignore it. We forget that we are part of nature. I agree that culture is used to protect crappy ideas, habits and behaviors.

    The Chinese eat tigers as part of their culture (it is part or ancient Chines medicine). Anything ancient has to be preserved even if it destroys the bloody planet. Anything ancient should be questioned because we are meant to be developing towards a more civilised race. Look at the way the Koran is used to justify terrorism. Quite insane.

    I think sometimes that humans have evolved too far. It is almost as if humans prove that evolution can only go so far before it fails. We don’t fit in with the rest of the world’s species. We are a dysfunctional part of nature. This will automatically lead to our extermination at our own hands one day and nature will then, after millions of sad years of human occupation, be returned to a balance. That great film, Planet of the Apes will come true.

    A well known author whose name I have forgotten 😉 believes that humankind hates itself to the point where we want to destroy our entire species. He argues we are doing this by destroying that which allows us to survive: the planet. We are currently heading in that direction nicely. I feel sad for the youth of today.

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