Does the Circle of Life Only Apply To Wildlife?

When we talk about animals that live in the wild we often talk about the circle of life and how each animal lives in a habitat they were designed specifically to thrive in.  For example you would not find a lion at the North Pole or a Polar Bear in the jungle.

I am sure you have heard stories of animals in the wild that learn to adapt to their changing habitats to survive or become endangered species because they are not able to find a way to adapt to the changes in today’s world—survival of the fittest.

For humans it is far easier for us to adapt to different environments from one continent to the next.  However what began as simple advances to make our environments easier to adapt to has turned into a never-ending need for comfort and luxury.  However, the lifestyles and habits that epitomize ultimate luxury and comfort come at a high financial cost, and more importantly a high natural resource cost. 

To make more room for the rapidly expanding population we cut down our forests, to grow less expensive produce we over process our crops and ruin our soil, to power our factories we emit harmful toxins into the air, and for convenience we dump waste into our bodies of water contaminating it to the extent that we are killing sea life.

Most human beings seem to fully comprehend (if not feel compassion) for animals that go extinct or that are struggling to survive in their deteriorating natural habitats, but too many of us are not able to draw the link to what we have in common with these struggling animals—humans will all too soon be struggling along with wildlife.

The modern need for comfort and luxury has us destroying irreplaceable natural resources that supply us with our basic needs—air, water, and food.  As we continue to take from Mother Earth for our luxury and convenience we further destroy the habitats of wildlife.  As these unnatural habitats continue to decline we continue to throw the circle of life off balance. 

It is easy to think of animals going extinct but as we continue to destroy nature the animals that will be struggling to survive won’t be wildlife but walking, talking, and thinking mammals—human beings.

To explore our connection to nature and to challenge your thought process of “want vs. need” you can read the beautifully depicted fictional tale My Green Friend Amay.  This is the first in a four part series that provides readers with a poignant and thought provoking story delivered in a relaxed and charming manner.  While the principals within this series are quite deep they are unveiled in the pages of the story of a young girl named Dawna who grew up in a world quite different from the one we live in today.