My thoughts turned to the interconnectedness of our world today. The opinion of ecologists has long been that humans are an inherently unnatural destabilization of the natural balance. However, when I consider the entirety of the landscape—avoiding the division of structures into categories like ‘non-human’ and ‘development,’ the purpose of destabilization becomes clear.
In my body, exercise is destabilizing. It acts as an artificial stressor in an otherwise balanced system. It requires my vagus nerve to act upon my heart and metabolism to create and utilize a faster blood supply. My breathing deepens and quickens to allow for a higher blood oxygen concentration. My muscle fibers swell, contract, and tear from the stress. On a cellular level, this creates structural damage. But it stimulates growth in the rebuilding.
In natural systems, stressors and recovery operate on longer timescales. The effect, however, is similar. The human scale damage in the form of physical damage, pollution and percussion can train strength. The diversity of a mix of untouched areas, high development skyrises, and all the levels of impact in between can be viewed as calisthenics. Nature loves experimentation because it creates diversity. The impact humans have may be seen as creating a technological immune response in the natural world.
I would ask you to challenge the idea that people are a negative influence, for even in destruction lies the possibility of growth. Both in resurrection, but also in adaptation. Before the integration of technology and biological systems can progress, it first must be imagined that they are compatible.
Historically, change has not always been a slow process. DNA mutations may be a slow process, but as we have seen in selective breeding, major differences can erupt within a single generation. Strong pressures create a strong response. This is true in all other regards, why should we expect anything less from the very forest herself?
From my perspective, venerating the untouched past is nostalgia. Like a grandmother looking at her own daughter’s baby pictures, the environment has grown and regrown. History cannot reverse and new babies are the only way to regain lost youth. We live longer than most other mammals. We live long enough to see the short term effects of our actions, take on new and changing roles, and learn from them. But humans will never be able to access global time scales. To a mountain, we are as short-sighted as fireflies.
The natural world is not now and has never been blind to our activities. The idea that our development of industry and technology is scorned by her wholeheartedly is in itself a human invention. For the response I have seen is one of integration, response, and even curiosity.
The diversity of human perspectives is its own kind of experiment. Those who fall into despair at the destruction work to heal, while those that work to destroy delight in their creations. There is room for us all, though the same fate awaits all humans. Sometimes I wonder at the validity of that statement, but that’s just me.