#14/15 What is nature?
How does planet Earth work?
Nature is everything. Defining it is impractical because it’s ever-changing, complex, brutal and unyielding. It’s better we understand where humans and animals fit into nature, as this helps us behave better and develop culture more suited to our species’ survival.
Think of it as a force that directs energy … the force of nature. Humans are part of nature and we both create and destroy it. But energy can never be created or destroyed, so without nature, it escapes and gets out of control. If biodiversity is the structure and function of healthy ecosystems that protects us from dangerous energy, nature is the overarching structure that binds everything together.
You might start to hear the term ‘nature-based solutions’ often these days. It effectively means using the force of nature to restore and rebuild ecosystems. It’s turning the power of nature into a force for climate stability, food security and human wellbeing.
When you understand this, you realise you need a mechanism to rebuild ecosystems. That’s where animals come in. Our behaviour has stopped animals moving nutrients (surplus energy) around the planet. It’s the ability to migrate that has kept our biosphere functioning.
Human survival depends on being in harmony with nature. The footprint of a single animal is big enough that introducing a small handful of wolves into a national park in the US, altered the grazing regimes of deer. It fortified bank side vegetation and changed the course of rivers. Even the environment was altered by animals.
And we are one animal that has a greater potential to change the planet, than any other.
