What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

[Norse_Angel]

Well, here you are Anunitu, I'll start a thread on the topic.
As discussed in a different thread, our ecosystem is self maintaining. Everything holds a purpose for another. The Circle of Life, *Holds MaskedOne over a cliff*
But what purpose do we humans serve? Do we do the environment any more good than we do bad?
I have my own theory on the topic, but feel free to disagree. I think in every cycle, there must be an end, or a deconstructive component. I think we are a part of an evolutional scale, but we are the last to evolve, to send the world back into a new cycle. I've titled it "Self Destructive Evolution" where the last to evolve has the capacity to destroy the world we live in, making us the end of this current cycle, and thus starting from the beginning once more.
What are your opinions, thoughts and feelings on the topic?

[Willow]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

For a long time I was of the opinion that human's role was to learn, understand, and then help maintain or care for wildlife (plants, animals) and in return it would help care for us.

Then as time went by I started to just flat dislike humans in general. The more I came across pollution, man-induced extinctions, etc... and the millions of people who just sit by and watch it happen. And then you do the reading about how so many people either aren't aware or they go with the flow to preserve their own safety/convenient way of living. But over the past few years I've become more and more aware of all the efforts people have been making to raise awareness, to stop things like finning and ocean pollution, to try and find more natural ways of maintaining their water (collecting/purifying rain water) and energy supplies (solar/wind) and how to work with the planet (gardening, composting, recycling) instead of perpetuating the man-made cycle (mass production/consumption/waste).

Plus in the last year or so I've met a fair few really nice, intelligent, compassionate people who have made me start to rethink my "humans suck" mentality. So I guess we'll see where it all goes in the long run.

[Gleb]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

Many people seek power, glory, money and many other material things. But they lose sight of what's really going on. Our planet can provide everything we need to us. I think what humans really want, since the very beginning, is happiness and to help one another. And of course to be treated with warmth and respect in return and be helped when there is a need.

A video that Bjorn shared on her FB page made me a brighter perspective about it. It allowed me to form this ideology in words. I think it just depends on the people, really. But mostly, I think people just ruin our planet, they make gloomy. Of course there are people who volunteer, help the environment, take care of nature and animals, et cetera... But when compared to our world's population... The humanity does more harm that good.

I mean, look everyone at the world - the current events with Daesh, the Middle Eastern conflict, Russia vs. Ukraine, the pollution in China and Japan.. What are the wars for? Wars exist, because people seek power or disagree with other people's opinions so instead of reasoning, they prefer to eliminate their opponents.
As for the pollution - people have nothing to do, so they make fabulous technologies, like in Japan and pollute the planet.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

The dominant organism in an environment is pretty much always going to be, ultimately, destructive to the environment (biotoxic), particularly when, like humans, it is an invasive species - until it produces enough poisonous waste to knock itself back into balanced proportions, or starve itself.

Humans, though, have the option of choice. We can do it differently.

Whether we will or not remains to be seen.

[Norse_Angel]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

Or we'll say screw it and live on Mars.

[anunitu]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

What have I done,I started a subject..are we the good guys,or are we the bringers of doom???

[Norse_Angel]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

I think we just need a good plague brought on by pollutions effects on certain factors and organisms in our world. Like some bad Si-Fi movie where the radioactive pollution creates this new form of bubonic plague organisms in mutated rats, and kills 3/4ths of the worlds population, thus, eradicating the majority of disbelievers.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

Or we'll say screw it and live on Mars.

Invasive species invading elsewhere...

What have I done,I started a subject..are we the good guys,or are we the bringers of doom???

The answer is always the same: both, neither, self organizing chemical compounds busy with self organizing, as self organizing chemical compounds are in the habit of being.

[Willow]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

What have I done,I started a subject..are we the good guys,or are we the bringers of doom???

Neither. The world doesn't operate in the extremeness of black and white. Even death comes with decay and new growth, and life comes with deterioration and flaws.

[thalassa]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

The dominant organism in an environment is pretty much always going to be, ultimately, destructive to the environment (biotoxic), particularly when, like humans, it is an invasive species - until it produces enough poisonous waste to knock itself back into balanced proportions, or starve itself.

Humans, though, have the option of choice. We can do it differently.

Whether we will or not remains to be seen.

This.

For most of human history, our ancestors (before organized agriculture) were ultimately benign. But for about the past 10,000 years, there's been no part of the earth untouched by man. Some peoples do it better than others, but even those that do it lightly modify their environment. Ultimately, does that support biodiversity or supress it?

[anunitu]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

We(humans) "may" be a catalyst in the evolution process. The damage we do,may be a driving force for evolution to continue. In some way we may be the "unknowing" creators of our own replacements on the planet(there is some humor in that idea)

[Jembru]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

I guess some of our newer members won't have seen this side of me yet.. but here we go...

Honestly, I don't think we have a purpose. I don't believe that organisms really have a purpose, like they evolved to serve some kind of super ecosystem. What we see as an ecosystem is simply a group of organisms evolving side by side, being shaped by one another so that they fit around one another like zigsaw pieces. Worms didn't evolve to churn up soil and make it more nutrient rich for plants.. plants simply evolved to take advantage of the bi-product left by the worms. If worms didn't exist, different species would have found another characteristic of the environment to exploit. Sure, there are some species upon which others rely so heavily that their removal is devastating.. but not because they had some special purpose. Evolution just took advantage of a valuable resource, and put too many eggs in that basket in the process. It was all just an accident.

Humans are animals. We compete for territory and resources, we keep procreating, we deplete natural resources. We destroy our pathogens; nature's defense against us. We live longer. Yet we keep on having child after child after child.. pumping them out like a magic pot that is waiting for the special words of power to make it stop, but no one remembers the words.. so its contents just keep on flowing out. With no diseases, and no common sense to curb our own animal need to procreate, we're left with only natural disasters and war. We getting better at protect ourselves against natural disasters..

So we kill one another. We have hate and distrust in our hearts. We use religion as a veil for our hate. Eventually we will destroy ourselves enough that our presence is hardly even felt by the planet. Not because it was our destiny, some grand plan, but because we came here by accident, and we're too stupid to control our selfish urges. Just imagine how overcrowded our planet would be, if we hadn't been killing so many of our fellow human beings, since the very beginning. I hate all the suffering we bring to one another, it feels like an open wound that just gets poked at whenever I read or watch the news, but I hate us as a species even more for making it the only option.

[Medusa]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

as another species on this particular planet, we are supposed to go along and get along with the environment. That's our purpose. That's EVERY purpose of EVERY living thing on this planet. Go along. Get along. But we don't do that. Because we think we are special. Our made up religions tell we are special. Our egos tell us we are special. That we control this environment. That we own this environment. Hell, this environment was made for us. Only us.

We seriously suck.


Hey humans. Your purpose is to stop fucking up the planet. Smokey smokey ten four over and out.

[Sean R. R.]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

Well, here you are Anunitu, I'll start a thread on the topic.
As discussed in a different thread, our ecosystem is self maintaining. Everything holds a purpose for another. The Circle of Life, *Holds MaskedOne over a cliff*
But what purpose do we humans serve? Do we do the environment any more good than we do bad?
I have my own theory on the topic, but feel free to disagree. I think in every cycle, there must be an end, or a deconstructive component. I think we are a part of an evolutional scale, but we are the last to evolve, to send the world back into a new cycle. I've titled it "Self Destructive Evolution" where the last to evolve has the capacity to destroy the world we live in, making us the end of this current cycle, and thus starting from the beginning once more.
What are your opinions, thoughts and feelings on the topic?

And here I was, writing a post on my blog about ecology.

I believe we humans are the ones chosen by nature to be the destroyers of this cycle.

[Medusa]

Re: What Purpose do Humans Serve In our Ecosystem

And here I was, writing a post on my blog about ecology.

I believe we humans are the ones chosen by nature to be the destroyers of this cycle.

So this sounds like backward rationalization.

Pee on carpet.
Mom gets mad
Mom gets new carpet
See mom, I helped you get a new carpet.
Lol. No.