If an accidental visitor (let’s use the name Siya*) to planet earth took a good tour of the globe would easily come to the conclusion that the planet had been made to serve only its human species.
A quick search would have shown that there are over 7 billion humans living in practically every corner of the planet; that they are surrounded by billions of domestic animals that provide companionship or food; that this trio of mammalian mass (of which 36% is human) comprises 96 percent of the total mammalian biomass, with wildlife mammals making up the remainder four percent. Our visitor’s best chance to see some of this scant wild life would be a visit to a zoo rather than an excursion to the wild.
And not to forget our feathered friends, Siya would find that domesticated fowl, like chicken, turkeys, ducks, outnumber wild birds by a factor of three. By one estimate, humans consume over 50 billion chicken, 1.5 billion pigs, 500 million sheep and 300 million cattle each year.
If Siya’s assignment of reporting back home included a historical account of how humans became the masters of planet earth, our space traveler would be astonished to discover that things did not start that way nor did humans ruled the planet for hundreds of thousands of years.
First, Siya would learn that homo sapiens was the only lucky variety of hominids to survive on earth with a smitten of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA. Once homo sapiens secured their place on earth, they set out to inhabit the planet with devastating results for all other species. Siya would learn the extinction came in three waves.** The first wave started some tens of thousands of years before the agricultural revolution. The second wave came with farming (about 11000 years ago) and the third with the industrial revolution. Each wave was more consequential than the previous one as it wiped out more animal species, brought others closer to total annihilation or to the point of no return.
As long as homo sapiens developed mostly biologically just like the rest of the animal world the ecological balance was kept in a fair equilibrium. Things changed though when homo sapiens passed the cognitive threshold that gave humans the ability to intervene in the natural environment, change it and design it to serve their interests. Thus, every leap of cognitive and technological advancement of homo sapiens has resulted in further retrenchment of the fauna and flora of planet earth.
How could we explain to Siya why humans separated their lot from that of nature? Part of the explanation is that, unfortunately for the environment, human thought, secular or religious, was late in developing a nature-friendly ethical code. Classical ethical philosophy as well as Western monotheistic religions were more preoccupied with morality among humans than human morality toward nature.*** We find more concern for nature in Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism than in the Abrahamic faiths with their anthropocentric views. Nature is also more revered in animism and paganism which attribute divine or spiritual powers and properties to nature (animals, rivers, oceans, celestial objects, etc.). Indeed, we see this still reflected in the interaction of Indigenous people with nature. A United Nations study has found that lands managed by Indigenous people have healthier ecosystems than lands conserved by governments.
We all have heard of Thomas Malthus and his prediction that the exponential population growth relative to the slower growth of food production would bring the destruction of human race. Contrary to Malthus’s prediction, humans proved very smart and innovative in extracting from nature ever greater yields of food. Malthus would have been closer to the mark had he theorized that the true danger to humans and their environment was not as much population growth as the “malady of infinite aspirations” as Emile Durkheim (the modern father of sociology) called the tendency to develop endless wants. John Maynard Keynes would also later warn us of the dangers of aspirational wants.
Our visitor Siya would notice that humans are still driven by hubris about their ability to manage nature and an impervious sense of infinite expectations about the capacity of nature to sustain human life with abundance. Siya would discover that humans count progress and keep a score card that only accounts for the satisfaction of their material needs irrespective of what happens to the rest of life on earth. Many derive confidence from the belief that divine providence in the sustenance of humans will last forever because of some covenant struck between them and their God. Others simply push aside all troubling thoughts of an ultimate catastrophe because they are unable to suppress their greed for material gratification. And others simply don’t believe in the science of environment and climate.
But Siya would also notice something else. That humans are not only selfish toward nature. They are also selfish toward each other. Siya would observe small numbers of humans living in superb luxury and gluttony and many living in appalling conditions. So Siya would come to the sobering conclusion that the plunder of nature is not committed in the interest of all humanity but, to a great extent, for the pleasure of few. And yet, when the earth’s ecosystem suffers all humanity pays the price whether rich or poor. Actually, the poor pay the heavier price given the hierarchical order of affordability. Let’s call this the negative externality of redundant wealth accumulation.
By the end of this trip around planet earth, Siya would read UN reports, government policy papers, scientific papers, newspaper editorials and op-ed columns. One of such report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the UN stresses the need for transformative changes in technological, economic and social factors if we are to arrest any further deterioration of the earth’s ecosystem. Siya could promise to send us her assessment as soon as she had returned home. Given though that Siya’s planet is 100 years away from earth, Siya would have said “I ‘m sorry, but till then you are on your own and don’t forget the clock is ticking.”
* Since I have no idea how that foreign planet identifies a person as male or female, I chose to name my fictitious visitor Siya from the genderless pronoun siya used in Austronesian languages.
** The three waves are from Yuval Harari’s Sapiens. Harari calls homo sapiens an ecological serial killer.
*** This gap between religion and human duty toward nature has been recognized the last thirty years and one outlet for those interested is The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.
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