An ecosystem is defined as a network of interactions among organisms and their environment. A community of living and nonliving components such as animals, plants, microbes, water, air, and mineral soil, all interacting in tandem.
Humankind's foolish assumption that it has to "dominate and subdue," "to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28), is the primary reason our planet is imbalanced and facing oblivion.
As the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan stated, "In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves." If we do not learn to live in harmony with other components in our planetary ecosystem, we will suffer the same fate, the same ego-systematic annihilation, that myriad other planets have faced. Earth will certainly not be the first planet destroyed by its inhabitants and unfortunately will not be the last.
Astrophysicist and Science Communicator, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, stated, "Mars once was wet and fertile. It's now bone dry. Something bad happened on Mars. I want to know what happened on Mars so that we may prevent it from happening here on Earth."
Aphorisms that have withstood the test of time, and warn us of not operating as one, are collectively ignored. We forget about, "united we stand, divided we fall." We disregard the fact that "We are one," that we are "branches of the same tree," and "originate from the same source."
Complete disregard for our fellow human beings, coupled with the fact that over 2 billion people adhere to a 2600-year-old book that is as divisive as any ever written, will lead to our terrestrial demise.
Dr. Martin Luther King eloquently stated, "We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers." Apparently, his quote, and the fact that he and myriad others, sacrificed their lives in an attempt to change the world for the better, is meaningless today.
Virginia Burden's recitation, "Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there," evidently has no value to the majority.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, "The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is because man is disunited with himself."
© Copyright Tuesday, October 20, 2015 - All Rights Reserved. Author, +Taskeinc
