The Oldest, Most Enduring Relationship
Mother Earth
. The human-environment interface begins the moment you are born and continues till you die and perhaps even after death as your remains - whether buried or reduced to ashes - are returned to earth and get regenerated.
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Is this a positive, loving relationship or one that is troubled, fraught with contradictions and exploitation? It is both. And it is a powerful one.
Media platforms carpet bomb doom news of
environmental degradation
due to human activity and greed. Everything is now polluted; species are going extinct, potable water is in short supply, glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, the dhobi list is very long. But here is another view that echoes a completely different sentiment, that humanity does not merely destroy nature, we have also enhanced it.
So reports ecology and archaeology scholar Stefani Crabtree in the Temple Foundation's newsletter, saying that when we call an ecosystem as being pristine, untouched by humans, we could be wrong. The truth is, when human beings ventured out of Africa and into different parts of the world, we populated every possible ecosystem on earth - some places early on and others, much later. She writes, "There is no ecosystem on earth today that is not shaped by human presence."
Human presence has not always had a negative effect. Like other fauna and flora, we, too, are an intrinsic part of nature. Nature created us. To leave humans out of nature in order to conserve it, can be misleading, even harmful. "As European-American pioneers moved west, they often encountered seemingly uninhabited landscapes. What they didn't see were the effects of disease, displacement and forced relocation that had reduced or removed indigenous population from those lands.
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The prairies they crossed were not untouched, they were actively managed landscapes, shaped by millennia of
indigenous stewardship
," says Crabtree. In the Great Plains, when settlers noticed forests creeping into former prairie lands, they were witnessing the ecological consequences of a disrupted
human-environment relationship
. Indigenous peoples had long used controlled burning to maintain grasslands, promoting biodiversity and reducing wildfire risk.
Crabtree points out that without these traditional practices, the ecosystem began to shift, losing its fire-dependent species and becoming less resilient to environmental stress.
Yes, humans have been disrupting ecosystems, but they have also played a part in shaping the natural world as stewards and enablers. The use of fire not only helped humans settle down but also created grasslands and savannahs for grazing animals and growth of new plant species.
There are other species besides humans who have been altering the environment for good purposes. Like beavers who build dams and ponds, helping recharge groundwater and controlling floods. Like birds, bees and butterflies, humans too aid in seed dispersal, biodiversity propagation, soil regeneration, and domestication of animals for tilling the soil, keeping predator populations in check. The negative impact seems to have overtaken the positive ones; we need to re-establish a healthy relationship that will allow all of us to grow and regenerate without stepping on one another's toes.
"
Ecological engineering
is not a one-way path to destruction; it could also be a foundation for abundances," points out Crabtree. People could be catalysts for
ecological health
, and not just agents of extraction.
Authored by: Narayani Ganesh
ganeshnarayani@yahoo.com
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