What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

When Native Americans roamed North America, the ecology of man with plant and animal kingdoms remained in balance. Native American attitude required great respect for the earth and all of creation. There was no pillaging of earth’s resources, nor taking more than necessary for sustenance. Man was seen as part of the earth, not above it or separate from it.

When Western Man conquered the continent, the attitude was one of domination. The earth, its plants, its animals were provided for the benefit of only one species: man. In fact, the attitude was that it was for the domination of only a few men: those that were of European descent, privileged, and born in the right place at the right time. All other humans were also there to be dominated: native people, poor people, women, children. Their wants, needs, and feelings were unimportant. This allowed Western Man to be callous and self-serving.

The current decline in biodiversity, deforestation, water pollution, factory farming, overpopulation and global warming are all tied to this attitude of domination rather than respect and balance. Man has utilized death control without monitoring population control. In fact, some people believe “the more the merrier” when it comes to population, without looking at the cost for all existing life forms for the ever-increasing population numbers. Meanwhile, as Man’s numbers have swollen, the animal kingdom has continued to experience extinctions of various species at a rapidly increasing rate. Habitats have been wiped out, migration patterns have been disrupted.  Animals are being killed and tormented by the billions annually to satisfy the carnivorous appetite of some people. The natural world is in danger of becoming extinct, too.

We are a finite earth with finite resources, growing an unsustainable lifestyle, an expanding population, and increasing meat production, while multiple demands are felt for more transportation, more cars, more meat, more things. And where do we get these things? From an ever-diminishing earth whose resources are being taxed to the limit. The above words of Chief Seattle* are important to heed. We must begin to share the earth with other races, other cultures, and other species. It is time to take responsibility for the damage we have caused and try to find a better way to share the earth: with the forests, the rivers, the deserts, the mountains, with the animals, and with one another.  Our time is running out.

*While widely attributed to Chief Seattle, these words may have been based upon a letter he wrote in 1854 but were actually written by screenwriter Ted Perry in 1972 for an ecological film entitled, “Home.”