Human vs Nature

Humans are creators of nature. Humans draw all they need to survive from nature, the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink and all other materials we used to carry out our daily activities are all derived from nature. Humans cannot exist at all without nature while nature can exist perfectly without a man. This is because man itself is a part of nature.

Although we derive all our life essence from nature, man has always maintained a hostile attitude towards nature. We have refused to protect nature from damage, and we have contributed to the destruction of the environment in a bid to carry out all their activities such as space exploration, agriculture, industrialization, taming of rivers and more.

The relationship between man and nature is quite a strange one, as man continues to develop technologically, he thinks that he is becoming less dependent on nature and that nature is no longer that important. Although he might become less directly dependent on nature due to the synthetic material he uses, in the real sense, he is becoming more dependent since most of these synthetic materials are made from natural sources. Thus, if there are no natural raw materials then there will be no synthetic material for man to use. Thus, as we continue to develop technologically, nature continues to become even more important.

The earth is the only planet that supports life among all the other planets in the solar system. Nature has specifically provided man with a unique planet that can support the existence and survival of human beings. If the earth is placed a little closer or further to the sun, it would have either been too cold or too hot for a man to live. But even with this and many other resources that have been provided for use, we continue to abuse nature and take advantage of all that has been given to us without caring about nature itself. Some other ways by which man misuse nature is explained below.

Nature provides us with trees and plants that act as sources of oxygen and medicine without which we cannot survive, but continue to destroy these plants and trees by felling trees indiscriminately without replacing them. We kill animals excessively, disrupting the echo system in the process. We also clear natural forests for agricultural purposes and construction purposes causing erosion in the long run.

Nature gives us water, oceans, and seas from which we drink and get aquatic food. But man even misuses that by overfishing and also spilling oil over water bodies thereby killing aquatic animals and rendering the water unhygienic for drinking and use.

Man has forgotten that he needs air for his existence, and he continues to pollute this air by releasing dangerous gases into the atmosphere in large quantities. Even the trees that should naturally help in purifying the toxic air are being cut down for various reasons.

We have even refused to regulate our population effectively. The rapid increase in temperature is leading to the rapid consumption of natural resources. Raw materials that are supposed to support a man for hundreds of years to come are being used up now and as time goes, the population increases and the natural resources are even used up at a faster rate. Due to this rapid consumption of natural resources, many animals have become extinct and many more have been declared endangered. If we continue on this path, there is a high probability that the resources available will no longer be able to sustain mankind causing world crisis.

Even though man has always taken advantage of nature for centuries, nature has its way of fighting back and taking its own cause. For instance, when a man abuses nature and deposit refuse and waste products into water bodies or when a man pushes back rivers and seas to erect buildings and industries, nature takes its course by flooding cities and towns, this is what most likely causes floods and erosions in some countries.

Also, when we release, dangerous gases such as CO, So2 NO2, and all other dangerous gases into the atmosphere by industrialization, nature maintains its course and due process and sends back acid rain to the land cause damage to our society.

So we can now see that even though we think that we are not affected by damaging activities we carry out on nature, we are causing damage to ourselves since we are in a part of this nature we are destroying.

If we continue to destroy the environment like this, a day will come when even breathing will become difficult. Nature will take its full course and take full control. When this happens, it will be too late to do anything anymore. Signs of this are starting obviously as the temperature of the earth is rising, floods are becoming more frequent and droughts are occurring in more countries.

Due to all these effects of our damaging activities to ourselves, we should realize early that the systems and resources (food, clean water medicine) are extremely fragile and once they get destroyed, it will become very difficult and almost impossible to get them back. Thus, we need to change our destructive behaviors and take drastic steps to protect the environment. If we all cooperate to do this, we will be able to experience and see the full beauty of nature.