We humans have invented something called "civilization" which insulates us from our environment. It protects us from the usual limits that all other animals live under.
Living in constructed homes means that not only have we eliminated most of our natural predators, but we can thrive in environments that were too harsh for our ancestors to survive in.
With the use of mass agriculture, we're no longer vulnerable to the amount of food that can be hunted and gathered from the local environment.
With modern medicine, we've even found ways to keep alive many individuals who would, for genetic reasons or through the accident of fate, otherwise not have survived.
There are now 7 billion people on the planet. If our civilization disappeared today, then about 6.5 billion would be dead within a year. Our survival depends on our maintaining an increasingly complex, technology based society. This necessarily consumes a lot of energy (which is mostly fossil fuel based) and has a huge impact on our environment. Our need to maintain our civilization means that most of our time and effort is spent on doing our individual parts to keep the whole thing functioning. This is the basis for our economy and it explains why we use money as a tool to keep track of how valuable everything is to maintaining our civilization. We have governments to maintain some kind of order in our economies.
We certainly didn't plan this as a species. We are truly nothing more and nothing less than an ape that has figured out how to wear clothes and how to play with fire. That was the first step in isolating us from nature and once we started on that path, there was no turning back.
Living in constructed homes means that not only have we eliminated most of our natural predators, but we can thrive in environments that were too harsh for our ancestors to survive in.
With the use of mass agriculture, we're no longer vulnerable to the amount of food that can be hunted and gathered from the local environment.
With modern medicine, we've even found ways to keep alive many individuals who would, for genetic reasons or through the accident of fate, otherwise not have survived.
There are now 7 billion people on the planet. If our civilization disappeared today, then about 6.5 billion would be dead within a year. Our survival depends on our maintaining an increasingly complex, technology based society. This necessarily consumes a lot of energy (which is mostly fossil fuel based) and has a huge impact on our environment. Our need to maintain our civilization means that most of our time and effort is spent on doing our individual parts to keep the whole thing functioning. This is the basis for our economy and it explains why we use money as a tool to keep track of how valuable everything is to maintaining our civilization. We have governments to maintain some kind of order in our economies.
We certainly didn't plan this as a species. We are truly nothing more and nothing less than an ape that has figured out how to wear clothes and how to play with fire. That was the first step in isolating us from nature and once we started on that path, there was no turning back.
