Humans are animals

Humans are animals and are classified as such. Biology makes no special provision for our perceived divinity or specialities. We are chordates, vertebrates, mammals, and primates - that's right, lumped in with monkey's. Part of the hominidae family of homo sapiens. We are animals and as such we occupy, hunt/kill/domesticate, feed, and eliminate as any other animal. We are destructive and constructive like the elephant and the ant. We are social animals like chimps, dolphins, and prairie dogs. So if we're just animals where does the problem of our existence come from? It isn't because we bulldoze a forest to build our homes, or when we throw our byproducts into giant landfills for the elephant will knock down tree's to get to the fruit and ravage the landscape too. Kudzu will smother a forest completely. Army ants will kill every other insect caught in their hungry march. Swordfish will eat every sardine in a school, and carp will decimate whole river systems. Animals do the best they can to eat well, to live long, and most importantly to procreate. They are biologically equipped to these ends, or they perish through competition or lack of adaptation. That's just how it is. Without any doubt whatsoever, the human animal is the most successful animal that is alive today. We have procreated to the ends of the earth, we dominate every other living creature as sources of food or amusement, we pile up our waste, and leech toxins into every biome. 85% of the great forests are gone because of our presence. Tons upon tons of our industrial gases fill the atmosphere, into the very stuff we breath and require to exist. We are animal kings. Top of the food chain.

Let me conjecture the problem isn't with the man animal per say, but simply in the mathematical and calculated outcome of our "success."

Over 40% of all tropical forests have been destroyed and another acre is lost each second.

Each year, humankind adds six to eight billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels and destroying forest

The annual catch in 13 of the world's 15 major fishing zones has declined and in four of those - three in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific oceans - the catch has shrunk by a startling 30%.

Millions of pounds of toxic chemicals, like lead, mercury and pesticides, pour into our waterways each year contaminating wildlife, seafood and drinking water.

The US just burned 25 million gallons of oil in the time it took me to blog this.

4 billion pounds of pesticides were used in the U.S. this year- eight pounds for every man, woman and child.

Americans are exposed to 70,000 chemicals, some 90% of which have never been subjected to adequate testing to determine their impact on our health.

We throw away 17 billion pounds of plastic in packaging each year.

200,000 people a day are moving to cities from environments that no longer support them.
Average person consumes twice as much as 50 years ago.

Average American creates 4.5 lbs. garbage a day -- an amount doubled from 30 years ago.

The U.S. burns 10,000 gallons of gasoline a second

700 million gallons of lubricating oil, 200-250 million tires, 138 thousand tons of lead from discard auto batteries, and 9 million passenger cars are disposed of each year in the U.S.

I could go on and on with environmental statistics and facts that show how successful we are as a species in resource distribution and allocation. As any other animal we pollute too, but none hold a candle to our capacity in doing so. We're talking huge numbers, numbers that most couldn't even fathom, that are literally altering the atmosphere, the soil, and the water. We're so successful that the numbers are exponentially accelerating, doubling what once took centuries. If one elephant knocks 2 tree's over per day to eat fruit it isn't too destructive, but if 7 billion elephants were doing it, it would be total destruction of every tree on the planet. We are the 7 billionth elephant, and we seem to be constructing our own extinction. 

I'm typing this blog on my laptop that took many different mined resources to make, gallons of fuel to distribute, and even more fuel energy on my part to generate the money to buy it. Is it killing the environment in so doing? No, but when billions more are purchased similarly, yes. Guilt is written with each key stroke. I just cleared an acre leaving maybe fifthteen or so shade tree's to plant a large vegetable garden, setup a chicken coop, and dig a pond for more sustainable purposes. Add a billion or more of me doing the same thing and you have a billion acres gone. "Get a bike, recycle, stop consuming so much," and other green philosophies are commendable, but it isn't going to alter the human animals basic behaivor to utilize resources, tool make, consume, and eliminate (pollute).

There can only be one conclusion for our success - a hammer stroke, a karmic sledgehammer that will shocked our species into extinction or possibly frighten the survivors into intentionally modifying their behaivor. Much like my dog which has the instinct to run the neighborhood looking to procreate and can only be fenced in with a shock collar/invisible fence system. One or two shocks and he never crosses the fence line while the system is active. I believe humans need a similar shock to modify their behavior. Much like a person who experiences chest pain and a heart attack suddenly becomes health conscious. Fear and pain are the most powerful biological motivators known next to sex. I feel no pain in my personal consumption habits, nor you, but the pain of which I speak is swiftly approaching. Let us hope our childrens children learn from the pain, and are frightened into adjusting themselves accordingly, or our extinction becomes the worlds gift. Wisdom has to be experienced and learned.