A Life on Our Planet

In his latest documentary, “A Life on Our Planet,” David Attenborough concludes: “This is not about saving our planet. It’s about saving ourselves. The truth is, with or without us, the natural world will rebuild.” That was refreshing to hear. I’ve always felt that the whole narrative behind environmentalism was misguided. It’s always framed as humans doing something evil to nature. Nature is always cast as something vulnerable that needs protection. And, environmentalists are the heroes who will save nature.

Nature can care less about global warming. There is no such thing as “balance” or “harmony” that nature is trying to achieve. If a big asteroid hits the earth, nature will simply reset the evolutionary clock again—no big deal. It won’t be the first time. In contrast, the climate change we have caused is quite minor. It’s neither positive nor negative as there is no ultimate goal for nature.

Nature does not need anyone’s protection. To think that it needs our help is laughable. It will do just fine with or without us, no matter how much we pollute it. We could have a global nuclear war, and nature will survive.

It’s this delusional idea that nature is weak and dumb, and we are strong and smart, which is making us behave foolishly. Our effort to “protect” the environment is just a selfish desire to maintain our comfort. We don’t want the temperature to go up because it would be uncomfortable for us.

Whatever we do is for ourselves only. Extinction is part of the mechanism of nature. “Protecting” endangered species is not heroic but selfish. Nature could care less if any species, including humans, went extinct.

In a way, we are like teenagers who think their parents are stupid. They realize how naive and helpless they are, only if their parents disappeared. We barely understand what nature does to provide what we need for our survival, yet we think we are the smart ones.

Nobody is asking us for help. Nobody is asking us to survive either. The only question we should be asking is this: Do we want to survive? With the way we are behaving now, the answer appears to be no. And, that is perfectly fine for nature.