Our Place On This Planet

From Ryan Thurmer:

Humans and nature, nature vs humans, this is a comparison we hear continuously; but at what point in time did humans separate themselves from the rest of the world, making a fine distinction between humans and the rest of existence? What ever happened to just...nature? We didn’t separate from nature, we have evolved from extinct organisms like all other beings on this planet. We come from nature, we are as much a part of nature as anything in this world. This is why I consider are interaction with our environments to be as important as it is with any other coexisting organism. Beavers deforest trees to build homes and change ecosystems, but some how everything copes in that environment.
I see our interaction in the world as that of an animal like the birds or beaver, one that manipulates it’s environment to suit itself but allows for the coexistence between it and the rest of nature. We are nature, and we need to get back to the idea of living with nature rather than partitioning ourselves from the rest of life on earth. Technology has taken much of our time away from the “Outdoors” but where is the line between a bird’s nest and a house? Did the wood, stone, and elements not come from nature as did the twigs and plants of the nest? Of course they did as they do for all of our possessions. Yes, our tools are much more advanced than those of apes, for example, but they all find their roots in layers of Earth. Since this planet is all what we are made of and all we have to utilize, we need to relearn how to give back, rather than just continue to take.