Nature... It's my jam

I know, no big hat :)

As I was walking past an old wood pile today, I was thinking about nature.

As I watch nature reclaim the location, I am just amazed at the resilience of nature and the dependencies that come along with it.  Not deliberately trying to be obtuse, so I will explain.  When I see flowers pop up where they weren't before, I know that they traveled via wind, animal, etc...  They need pollination (generally in the form of an insect), water, and some nutrients (some plants more than others).  I wouldn't be so bold as to say that nature is some Star Trekkie utopia of peace and cooperation.  But nature does find balance—except, it seems, when humans are involved.  I like to think about the lady bug, not just because they eat the aphids off my plants, but moreover, the question of why don't predator insects like the lady bug and the lacewing just decimate aphids to the point of extinction similar to what humans have done to many a species (The buffalo is a good example, but I think the passenger pigeon is the better example).

In nature, predation is generally not about total extinction (generally).  Given the example of the lady bug, they will increase in numbers when aphid populations are large, but die off when food is scarce or change food sources when food is scarce.  This balance and adjustment gives time for the aphid to rebound (as much as I would like them all eliminated [the aphids], they serve as a food source for so many beneficial insects.

Lately, I am struggling with thoughts of what lies ahead for us humans (not just the political spectrum), but when nature has finally had enough of us.  Our focus on short-term, greed, power, species narcissism, and total ignorance has left us in situations such as what has been happening to our bee populations overtime (see this disturbing article: https://www.sej.org/headlines/scientists-identify-culprit-behind-biggest-ever-us-honey-bee-die).  You see as is the case throughout history, our shortsightedness has caused us to try to quickly address a problem, in this case mites that carry viruses dangerous to bees.  Instead of understanding nature, like taking steps to understand the natural ways to combat these mites (like not overpopulating bees for corporate farming purposes), we choose to just find an easy way, which for us is generally some chemical pesticide.  Funny, we know damn well that insects evolve, like bacteria, and the ones that remain after pesticide use are generally resistant (like antibiotic resistant bacteria), but we just continue to follow the same process until what is left is no longer what nature intended, but a horrible result of our hubris. 

You see, we think we are more important than everything else, and honestly, nature could do just fine without us, but us... we won't be so lucky if we continue down this path.

I will leave the statement to a much smarter man than me:

“The Earth will survive our folly. Only we will not.” - Carl Sagan

Maybe it's time we stop putting ourselves above or outside of nature and use our collective brain power to become part of it.

For now, I'm good (MMGA).

- JJ