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The Relationship of Man and Nature

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The Relationship of Man and Nature VOL. 41, No. 4 HEAD OFFICE, MONTREAL, MAY 1960 TheRelationship of Man and Nature O subduenature, to bend its forcesto our will, way for millionsof yearsbefore they discovered how to T has been the acknowledgedpurpose of mankind use iron,copper, coal, oil and gold.But neverhas man since human life began,but the time has come for a beenable to get alongwithout food and water.This is revisionof our conceptionof the benefitsand respon- why the relationshipof all livingthings has urgent sibilitiesof holdingdominion over all other created meaningfor us. things.A new spiritis abroadas scientistsand laymen Thestate of affairs today realizethat man and the restof natureare unitedand indivisible. In a subjectso old,so vast,and so continuallynew, it seemsto be impossibleto keepscience and sociallife At a time whengreat elemental forces are clamouring apart.In fact,we shouldnot try to do so.Continuance of at the bars of our civilizationwe need to discardour our humansociety depends upon our abilityto heedthe ideas of "attacking"the forest, "bringing under scienceof therest of nature,and live within its bounds. subjection"the mighty rivers, "conquering"the Thereare at leastthree goodreasons for surveying mountains,and "subduing"the prairie.Instead, we the presentstate of affairsand learningabout our needto makethe most of allnature as an ally. natural environment:(1) our advancingtechnology Mankind is welcome to dominatethe other forms uses up resourcesin increasingquantity; (2) our of life, providedhe can maintainorder among the increasingpopulation puts annuallygreater pressure relentlessenergies whose balancedoperation he has upon our livingspace; (3) our continuedexistence disturbed.This is a hardcondition. Our pastis fullof depends upon our keeping our natural environment sombre warnings of what happens when we fail to productiveof the essentials of life. meet it. The evidenceis in the remnantsof great Over and above the slow changesby naturalcauses civilizationsburied beneath mud and sand. such as climate,the earth has sufferedmeasureless Onlywhen we recognizethat the studyof all living destructionof animalsand plantsby the uncalculating thingsis a profoundlynecessary part of humanthought actionsof both savageand civilizedmen. do we reachthe" momcnt of truth.Then we realizethat It was destructionof theirenvironment that caused we are part of a complexstretching back to the begin- salmonto disappearfrom Lake Ontario,and the bison ning of time and reachingout on every hand to the to dieoff our Western plains, and the passenger pigeon to boundariesof theuniverse. Every one of us is an actorin vanishfrom NorthAmerica. Forests have beenburnt up, a great drama in which each plays his part as both soil has beenwashed away, deserts have beenproduced, causeand effect. ;~ndrivers have been polluted. "We have," said Professor A. F. Coventryto the TorontoField Naturalists’ Club, Theforces set in motionby everyact of everyanimal "fora long timebeen breaking the littlelaws, and the and bacterium,by every inch added to the growthof big lawsare beginningto catch up withus." plantor tree,affect the livesof othercreatures. The principleswhich governthese interrelationships are Thebalance of natTire embracedin the sciencecalled ecology, a word coming Naturehas its laws designedto maintainbalance. If from the Greek for "home"or "estate".Ecology is the the numberof any livingspecies tends to increaseout studyof how the householdof natureis kept in order. of proportion,some force will arise to controlit. There ThisMonthly Letter has to do withrenewable resources, is an equilibriumin undisturbednature between food theessentials of life.Our primitive ancestors made their and feeder,hunter and prey,so that the resourcesof the earthare never idle. Some animals or plainsmay Soilis firstof allrock particles, then the organic seemto dominatethe rest, but they do so onlyso long matterfrom dead plants and animals,and finallya as thegeneral balance exists. communityof livingplant and animalorganisms. Theselaws cannot be disregardedwithout disaster. Roots,insects, worms and bacteria build fertility into Nature-- whichis ourword for the totalof the con- it,while small mammals plow it andlet in theair. The ditionsand principleswhich influence the existence soil becomesfilled with organic matter containing of livingthings -- willnot accept ignorance of her packagedenergy from the sun. lawsas an excusefor breaking them. Thehive of livingthings existing in andon thesoil is vitallyimportant. At Rothamstedin England,the Nature’slaw does not command us to do,or to refrain oldestagricultural research station in theworld, it fromdoing, anything. It merelystates that if a living has been foundthat the populationof invertebrate beingdoes so-and-so, then the result will be such-and- faunaper acre of fertilizedland is fifteenmillion, of such.If we wishto avoid disability, pain and dissolution, whicheight million are insects. we mustpay attentionto thewarning. Wateris essentialto soildevelopment, as it is, Everybalance requires checks. Living things are indeed,to all livingthings. dynamic,always trying to expand.When population growsin an areaso as to menacethe food supply, pred- Movementis of the essenceof water,and the most atorsmove in; whentheir prey is reduced,the pred- damagingimpact of civilizedman on his environment atorsare driven to otherareas in searchof food. is theshattering of thiscycle of movement.The break is causedby the destructionof plant cover, removing Beforeshying away from the "cruelty" of nature,let thesponge-like texture of thecomplex topsoil -- topsoil us lookat thenecessity which prompts it. Let us suppose which,it is estimated,took five hundred years per inch therewere no controlover soil bacteria, the smallest to build. and simplestof all livingthings. Then, says John H. Breakingthe water cycle has wiped out civilizations Storerin his delightfulbook on ecologyThe Web of in Mesopotamiaand NorthAfrica and elsewhere,but Life,under favourable conditions each individual would becauseof soaringworld population we havereached divideinto two abouttwice every hour. Even if it a newcrisis. "Never before," says William Vogt in his happenedonly once in an hour,the offspringfrom a soul-searchingbookRoad to Survival,"has the hydrologic singleindividual would number 17 millionin a day, cyclebeen badly dislocated in thepresence of so many andby theend of sixdays the cells would have increased hundredsof millionsof people." to a bulklarger than the earth. Or considerthe oyster, whichmay discharge500 millionripe eggs in one Wasteof water,including unnecessary run-off, or spawning.If all thesematured and all subsequent excessiveuse fromany one placefor industrialand progenysurvived, after only four generations there domesticpurposes, or for irrigation,can lowerthe wouldbe a pileof oysterseight times the size of the undergroundwater table, sometimes far away,and earth.The balance preserved by natureprevents calam- depleteor temporarilyexhaust the supply. itiesof this sort. The primarymeans of increasingand maintaining Aboutsoil and water waterreserves is to protectand improve the plant cover on our watersheds.From these areas of drainagethe Goodsoil is a livingthing, and its health is a matter wateris fed by run-offand seepageto surfaceand of lifeand death to plantsand animals. What folly it is undergroundstreams. to callsilver, gold and gems"precious’and dirt"base". If therewere as greata scarcityof soilas thereis of The watershedproblem is one of the red-letter jewelsand preciousmetals, we shouldgladly give a problemsof the day.Almost everything that has to do heapof diamondsto purchaseonly so muchearth as with renewablenatural resources, with forestry, wouldhold a smallviolet in a tinypot. farming,hunting, fishing, and the economicsof pro- duction,is tiedup withthe watershed. Thesoil is constantlychanging. In thesoil we find oneof theoldest laws of lifeknown to us:birth, growth, Plantsand trees death,decay and rebirth. Itis quitecorrect to saythat all flesh is grass.Animals lackthe ability to subsiston thesimple elements in air, Nothingis wastedin nature.Everything nourishes water,sunshine and soil.To perpetuatethemselves, somethingelse until the bacteria finally get hold of it theymust eat grass or oneanother. The plant can turn and returnit to the soilafter breaking it downonce inorganicchemicals into living tissue. more into inorganiccompounds which plants can againtransform into protein.The rootsof man’s No onecan. deny, then, the importance of plantlife physicaland mental health spring from the soil. to continuanceof the human race. Without that silent, endlessmanufacturing process which goes on in the It sometimeshappens that these changes lead to a greenleaf under the influence of chlorophyll,sunshine, precariousexistence. The creaturesin the areamay air,and moisture-- theworld’s primal industry -- we seemto be leadinga static life, but our environment is shouldsurely die. not a museumdisplay case in whichpetrified groups are foreverremoved from contact with nature. Some- Everyspring, nature’s factory starts again to produce thingis alwayshappening, and just a littlechange, a food,harnessing the sun’s energy and combining it with littlemore severity, a little more depletion, may bring elementsfrom air, water and rock, into living tissue. to an endthe existence of groupsor allthe population. Fromthe roots,through the fibres, the sap runsup, carryingwater and nourishmentto everypart of the No one knowshow many speciesduring the ages plant,and in theinside
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