The Web of Life

Before I commence writing my blog entry, I would like to show you a part of a Chief Seattle's speech on March 11, 1854. This speech relates to E.O Wilson's Ted about how the web of life is being destroyed.

"You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.

Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know.

All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.

Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

This is a part of Chief Seattle's speech that was given on March 11, 1854.

According to E.O. Wilson, enormous amount of species are disappearing and most of them are unknown to us. In the future, our natural world may be in danger, and it will definitely affect us. Things will be unstable, including us. Maybe the law Ishmael refers to its diversity. The diversity of life is vital to nature because all things are connected. Just like the society Ishmael describes, A's, B's and C's, none of them can live without one another. An unknown organism might be crucial to our existence, we just don't know.

Chief Seatle said in his speech, man did not create the web of life, man is just a part of the web. If a string is cut off, the entire web might collapse. E.O. Wilson's proposal of a Encyclopedia of Life will make all key informations of life accessible. Understanding all the species has one most significant purpose, to preserve our biosphere, the web of life. If we're able to understand them, then we might be able to manage them and fix the problems we're causing in biosphere. We should recognize the importance of diversity. What we do to the web will come back to us. "Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

Laws for building a civilization.

From what we have read so far, we conclude that Ishmael believes that there are laws that exist regarding to how a civilization should be built. However, I don't see how there could be universal laws that suit every civilization. Civilizations in the history that collapsed all appeared in different locations, in other word, the environments were entirely dissimilar. In that case, the chance of having the same cause for collapse was low. There are physics laws, such as the 3 Newton Laws but it's hard to imagine that there are laws exist to indicate whether a civilizational flight will truly fly or not. In science, there are right and wrong, but is there a right or wrong way to save our civilization? That's something we can think about. Hopefully, Ishmael will convince me later that there are universal laws.

If there are, according to Ishmael, laws that govern the success or collapse of a civilization, then as humans we are definitely ignoring them. Serious problems are occurring right now, such as the lack of natural resources: gasoline, clean water, and trees. These phenomenons show that things are getting worse, and we are not doing anything significant to fix the problems. Maybe it's because we don't recognize the laws, or maybe there are no laws, maybe we are doomed to face extinction. If there are laws for civilization, then we should start following them right now.

The universe was created for us

Well, I made this blog entry a little bit different. It's a game. You have to guess who I am. It's more than one creature though.

A. The trees were created so we can rest when we're tired. We get tired because we have to hunt for our food. God created foods for us though. God made the mice and snakes so we won't be hungry. The sky is created for us too. We have huge advantage over other creatures since we're flying. We're the king of the world.

B. We dominate the world since everything revolves around us. The grasslands are for us to run and play. The antelopes are creatures made by God for us to eat. The caves are our houses. The river is providing water for us. I bet the universe came to be this way because of us.

C. We're a lucky group of creatures. We live in a place where everything is good for us. We're lazy but it's okay, what we eat exists everywhere. We call it bamboo. All we do is we eat bamboos and do nothing else. God is nice too us, God made us the focus of the world since we're the happiest.

A. Eagle

B. Lion

C. Panda