lets ponder on this series of questions. what are humans here for? how do they contribute to the earth? what makes us so superior to the other living things?
we can compare with some animals. the lion, for example. it has the speed and agility to take down a large elephant and a pack of sprinting deer. the late woolly mammoth is another choice. it can live through the ice age without a care about the frigid temperatures. or the fish. which although small, provide themselves as hard-to-get food for larger sharks. or, the amazing birds. soaring high above our heads, sometimes even working together with the insects to pollinate the flowers we love.
if we think about it, we are almost the most useless of all animals. we cannot survive extreme weather. we cannot survive in water environments for long. we cannot fly. we cannot hunt with our own bodies. we are not natural pollinators. we kill our own species for fun. plus our methods of communication endanger the lives of everything else.
take a look at your anatomy. what do you have that can defend yourself against a fierce tiger? some people say the brain can outsmart all others. but what's the use? throw it far off and shout "fetch"? or how about your defence against an army of ants? without insecticide, we have to co-exist with creepy crawlies, a prospect that most of us fear. in short, we are naked in terms of defence against all predators. at least other prey have their escape mechanisms. deer can run, elephants can fight, and bulls are themselves an effective deterrence. the only piece of good news is that we do not have a clearly defined natural mortal enemy, besides ourselves.
on a smaller scale, viruses and bacteria are fighting a fair battle against us. this is one situation where the brain, easily the most vulnerable of all organs, has flexed it's muscles and allowed us to create miracle cures and drugs. HOWEVER, the price of this is for mother nature to pay. tigers, whose bones have long been seen as the cure to all ailments, have been poached till the brink of extinction. rhinos too, are facing the same fate as their horns are just as valuable and misunderstood. the only "real" medicines are, thankfully, made with as little harm to the environment as possible.
is this the implication of having an intelligent life form? again, we ask the question, "what defines intelligence in a species?". research has shown that dolphins are almost as smart as humans. our distant relatives, chimps, have been taught sign language and their response is equal to that of a young child.
even since the homosapien began to invent, the planet's condition began to deteriorate. we can liken ourselves to a cancer tumor. incidentally cancer is the one disease everyone is afraid of. anyway, in the early stages, the tumor is just localised. like humans, whom originated from the africas. then the numbers grow. both the cells and humans spread out their population in search of food. they begin dominating everything that comes into contact. meanwhile the body in which they are contained, suffers. MRI scans are done time and again. plans are made for the destruction man has made to be corrected. but the tumor persists. the body's nutrients are being used up way too fast. in the end, it will just die a bare skeleton; everything edible had been consumed by the all-conquering cancer cells.
this is the direction that mother earth is heading. if we do want to celebrate the next millenium, it would depend on each and everyone of us to contribute. a little less energy used everyday, a little less time spent bathing, will define the length of the reign of the human race.
maybe we don't belong on this planet. but since we are already here, lets help our neighbours live a better life than ever. helping all other species; can we make this the main reason for mankind's existence?
Thinking of you MAPLE on Sunday, January 20, 2008
