Humans and our fight against nature

Every life form on the planet affects its surroundings. Birds pick up twigs to form nests; ants dig the earth to build incredible underground cities; orangutans make trails between trees after walking them for years. And humans are no different. We transform our environment to fit our needs. We build roads and buildings, we turn forests into crops, we make huge underground dumpsters. The difference between us and the rest of the living organisms is that our impact on the environment is harmful. Any other life form's impact of its surroundings can be tracked down to benefit other organisms or even the environment itself. And nature is so well designed that whenever someone is taking a little bit too much of the pie, she gives them a slap in the hand. But again, in this sense, we are different. Or are we?

To understand this concept, we can turn to the most perfectly balanced ecosystem in the planet: the rain forest. Rain forests abide to this balance rule so well that, ironically, they are the most fragile and easiest to destroy by someone who doesn't play by the rules. Namely, us. In the rain forest, no single organism may overpower another. Resources are carefully managed so each may have their place in the sun, but no one may stay there more than what's necessary. This is done in several forms, from competition between species to some pretty fascinating techniques. My favorite is one that I like to call "natural pest control". For every insect in the rain forest, there's a specific and targeted parasite that flourishes when its "assigned" insect is getting out of hand. The parasite is deadly and highly contagious. Ants are so familiar with theirs, that when a fellow ant shows early symptoms, they quarantine it far away from the colony, and let it die where it will hopefully not infect anyone else. This parasite is so well designed, that during the last stages of the infected ant's life, it disorients it and makes it climb as high as possible and tightly grip the tree (or whatever it ended up climbing) with its jaws. The ant dies and its body remains clamped high above the ground. Why? Because shortly after the carrier dies, the parasite grows outwards like an alien plant from a horror movie and then releases its spores into the air. The higher the release, the wider the contaminated area. Smart, huh?

So as soon as an insect starts to thrive a little bit too much for comfort, its parasite arrives to control its population and let the rest of the insects live without this insect affecting them. This is that "fragile balance" we hear about all the time, since we're screwing with it big time. If Mother Nature does not let a single species dominate to protect the rest of them, regardless of whether they are ants or apes, imagine the kind of damage we inflict when we wipe out countless acres of rain forest everyday.

I believe our actions will not go unnoticed. If there is a "natural pest control" for humans, we're asking for it. Or maybe it is already in effect, yet we have managed to overcome it. Since the beginning of our history, we have always relied on tools and technology to fight against nature's power. Cold? Wear a fur. Threatened? Build weapons. Hungry? Grab a Snickers. And this is because without all our clever inventions, we are doomed. We don't have powerful fangs, warm fur or killer stingers. Hell, set a human against a few insects (bees, for example), and we are no match.

So, using our precious tools, we manage to survive. That is, until Mother Nature gets tired of our stubbornness and comes up with a pest control so effective that no human invention may fight it. Don't get me wrong. I'm a Software Engineer and I'm all for technology and science. But we must come to terms with our exploitation of this planet and learn how to live in it without destroying everything else in our path.

This post was inspired by the "Jungles" episode of the Planet Earth documentary series, which I HIGHLY recommend! ... but the one narrated by David Attenborough, unless you want an Aliens feeling to it :-p