Most religious persons believe that God placed man on Earth to oversee and protect the bounty of life that it harbors. If so, She must be severely disappointed.
Among the last species to appear, we are surely among the most expendable. When compared to photosynthetic plants and pollinating insects, our role is insignificant. Indeed, for the past 10,000 years, during which we established permanent settlements and gave rise to the agricultural, industrial and technologic revolutions, we have been dismantling, polluting and otherwise destroying the intricate web of life into which our species was born. Should humans disappear tomorrow, natural ecosystems would begin a long process of healing and the planet might just survive, at least until our sun burns out.
But we are where we are and our only hope of offering stewardship is afforded by our intelligence. We generally know what we must do: limit our population, reduce our consumption, eliminate pollution and both protect and restore as much natural habitat as possible. Unfortunately, greed, politics and mysticism get in the way and our professed role as stewards of the planet will not likely materialize. In the end, it will be our species that destroys Mother Earth.
