(June 25, 2021 at 4:42 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(June 25, 2021 at 4:37 pm)tackattack Wrote: I wasn’t arguing against you BRIAN, I was just clarifying your language. In th OP u stated “ Humans are NOT more important than other life” and then mixed important and apex up. We are apex merely for the fact we are so important to the ecology. I understood your driving point that while we have the most,we are seldom the best for the ecology of the planet; and I agree. But, if not us then whom?
How are we important to ecology? Our species wasn't around 65 million years ago, and other life did fine without us.
We are only important to ourselves now, while our species exists. I think we are not really in disagreement. We most certainly have the higher cognition to address the very problems we are self inflicting making our sustainability harder. We are not doing a good job protecting the planet. We should care about protecting the planet because it is the only home we a have.
I was strictly speaking in cosmic time, and in that context, knowing the planet has had 5 mass extinction events we are not an apex. The only thing humans can do, or can try to do, is take care of our only home so it can sustain us longer.
We are important to ecology because we keep damaging it (again, ‘important’ is not the same as ‘beneficial’) and we have the ability - though apparently not the will - to fix it.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
