> Date:    Sat, 12 Jan 2008 11:53:03 -0700
> From:    steve <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: raising animals and the environment

> I find the idea irrational that somehow "humans" are not a component of
> "nature" including all the ways we adapt our environment  and that for
> example, when beavers build dams and modify their environment, that's
> natural, but when humans build dams and modify their environment, that
> is somehow  "unnatural."  Refusing to adapt one's environment, that
> truly is unnatural.

*** Humans absolutely are a natural part of the environment. The question is 
whether or not humans are evolutionarily "fit." Individuals/species that are 
"fit" survive by fitting into a niche in the web of life and thriving there. 
If we change the environment to the point where we can no longer survive, 
that would be perfectly "natural" and humans as a species would become 
extinct, as millions of species have already done. It doesn't take a species 
with big smarts to change the planetary environment to the point where it 
can no longer survive, either. Cyanobacteria did it 2 million years ago.

--Carrie