Anthropocentrism’s role in ecological collapse

Paco Dennis

Paco Dennis

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Mid-Missouri
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"Anthropocentrism is an often-overlooked contributing factor in ecological collapse. Folks will point to the profit-driven economic system as the sole cause, but anthropocentrism I would argue, is what paved the way for society’s overconsumption and unrealistic belief in infinite growth.

Anthropocentrism places humanity at the center of the universe, and prioritizes the interests of the species above all else. The natural environmental and non-human animals exist merely to satisfy human needs, and only has value insofar as their usefulness to humans. This line of thought primarily has its origins in religious dogma, such as Judeo-Christian texts, in which humans are said to have been created in the image of God and given dominion over Earth and all its other inhabitants. This sentiment of humanity being the rulers of the natural world, completely separate from other animals and the only species with inherent value has been prevalent for centuries, and has resulted in considerable environmental degradation as we’ve operated under the delusion that we can pillage it of its natural resources with impunity. And it has made us fail to recognize the interconnectedness of all living beings, the key roles that other species fulfil in nature, and the importance of biodiversity. We’re not separate from or above nature, but a part of it. And we haven’t conquered it, as some would like to believe. The devastating natural disasters in recent times and how we are left completely powerless in the face of these catastrophes is clear evidence of this. We are, and have always been at the mercy of nature. There’s never been a competition about who’s superior, humans just tried making it into one.

Ultimately, anthropocentrism is an illogical and outdated worldview, and when you really look at it, we don’t serve any vital function, ecologically speaking. The potential extinction of marine life or bees and other insects would have far-reaching, disastrous consequences for the planet. Human extinction? Not so much. The idea that we’re the be-all and end-all of creation is a man-made construct that only exists in the human mind. At the end of the day, we’re just hairless apes with inflated egos. Earth was spinning long before we got here and it will continue to do so long after we’re gone. This is not misanthropic ramblings, but a simple fact."

3 minute read

https://thomasfeirup.com/2023/03/09/anthropocentrisms-role-in-ecological-collapse/
 

Humans are the most important beings on this planet, IMO. Doesn't mean I'm dissing other species, but I believe everything is for us and this has nothing to do with any god or image. We just have to do a much better job of caring for others and we are up to the challenge? Hopefully. Humans have conquered the earth for good or ill. Without us, it would just be "If a tree falls and no one is near does it make a sound?" It does, humans listen, take it in and report about it. Due to our hyper awareness and abilities, everything is at our mercy, except natural disasters. We must be merciful to everything, we depend on it for our own survival.
 
Pepper said:
Humans are the most important beings on this planet, IMO. Doesn't mean I'm dissing other species, but I believe everything is for us and this has nothing to do with any god or image. We just have to do a much better job of caring for others and we are up to the challenge? Hopefully. Humans have conquered the earth for good or ill. Without us, it would just be "If a tree falls and no one is near does it make a sound?" It does, humans listen, take it in and report about it. Due to our hyper awareness and abilities, everything is at our mercy, except natural disasters. We must be merciful to everything, we depend on it for our own survival.
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What do you mean by "most important"? To whom? Only to ourselves, certainly not to the planet or its other inhabitants! Some of my best friends are people. But as a species, we are arrogant and destructive; we think that we own the place. We do not. We are the most dangerous predator and most invasive species Earth has ever seen.
 

I never knew there was a word for this quality of humans thinking that we are the most important thing on the planet. Whether we are or not, our actions speak for themselves and the results are the same. It's who we are and more to the point, it's what we do. We are capable of doing things on a huge scale. We are also quite stupid. This is not a good combination of traits.
 
spectratg said:
What do you mean by "most important"? To whom? Only to ourselves, certainly not to the planet or its other inhabitants! Some of my best friends are people. But as a species, we are arrogant and destructive; we think that we own the place. We do not. We are the most dangerous predator and most invasive species Earth has ever seen.
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While you are absolutely right, the truth is that Humans have conquered this planet, making ourselves most important. JMO. We might be arrogant & destructive but we do own the place. Who's gonna stop us, ants?

We've overlooked our responsibilities which may make us bad conquerors, but doesn't negate the fact this planet is our turf.
 
Pepper said:
We are as natural to this planet as anything else. We are the same, made of the same material. We are native, not invaders.
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We've pretty much invaded every nook and cranny on the planet. Other invasive species aren't even close to the same magnitude of our destruction. We are destroying the planet and probably ourselves in the process. Unless Nature fights back?
 
Pepper said:
While you are absolutely right, the truth is that Humans have conquered this planet, making ourselves most important. JMO. We might be arrogant & destructive but we do own the place. Who's gonna stop us, ants?

We've overlooked our responsibilities which may make us bad conquerors, but doesn't negate the fact this planet is our turf.
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Yea unless Nature fights back! The "planet is our turf" is only a viable argument if we exhibit responsible stewardship. So far we have not, and it may be too late.
 
spectratg said:
What do you mean by "most important"? To whom? Only to ourselves, certainly not to the planet or its other inhabitants! Some of my best friends are people. But as a species, we are arrogant and destructive; we think that we own the place. We do not. We are the most dangerous predator and most invasive species Earth has ever seen.
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quoting for the truth... about time we took a hard look at ourselves... :cool:
 
"...nature has not singled out humans for special treatment, and human beings are not the most recently evolved species on the planet in any event. That last honor, if it can be viewed as such, would likely belong to a virus, a bacterium, or another micro-organism, since their short generation times allow them to evolve, almost literally, in the blink of an eye. Humans are no more of an end point to evolution than they are its most recent product."
~~from Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live by Marlene Zuk
 
officerripley said:
"...nature has not singled out humans for special treatment, and human beings are not the most recently evolved species on the planet in any event. That last honor, if it can be viewed as such, would likely belong to a virus, a bacterium, or another micro-organism, since their short generation times allow them to evolve, almost literally, in the blink of an eye. Humans are no more of an end point to evolution than they are its most recent product."
~~from Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live by Marlene Zuk
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It's been a long time since I read this. I think it was in college, but I'm not sure. Bacteria reproduce and die at staggering speeds. Someone calculated that if bacteria stopped dying, the earth would be covered with 8 feet of bacteria in 2 days. Not sure about the 8 feet exactly, but I'm quite sure the time for it to happen was 2 days. Also, I'm not sure what 8 feet of bacteria would look like, but that's not the point of this post.
 
Not intended for this to be relevant to anything in particular, but I am watching the X Files on Hulu. This is a first for me. I had always passed on the series before, but I'm kind of enjoying it. But what I feel compelled to mention is that the X files is a science fiction series, not a documentary.
 
JustDave said:
I never knew there was a word for this quality of humans thinking that we are the most important thing on the planet. Whether we are or not, our actions speak for themselves and the results are the same. It's who we are and more to the point, it's what we do. We are capable of doing things on a huge scale. We are also quite stupid. This is not a good combination of traits.
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I was thinking something along those lines a few days ago... that our ability to cause destruction greatly exceeds our collective intelligence and what we should be allowed to do, if there was someone or something overseeing this mess we call humanity.
 
Humans have and are having a big impact on the world's ecosystem.

We are one of the most successful species, living in almost every climate on earth, arctic to tropic, desert to rainforest. Only 4% of the worlds mammals are now wild, 60% are our livestock and we are 36%. 70% of all birds are our poultry. We have changed the face of the earth from forests and grasslands to farms and cities and we have changed the atmosphere and the climate.

Quite an impressive feat. However in the long run the earth has lived with greater changes and will come through this one just fine. What we have to figure out is will that include a healthy happy human population? I fear it may not.
 
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As long as wealth driven economic powers of endless growth, development, and overpopulation continue to dominate, homo sapiens will be doomed. It isn't that there are not right thinking human minds and voices with solutions out there so we could potentially live harmoniously sustainably on this planet I'd argue is a paradise within our vast universe of billions of galaxies, each with billions of star systems with planets but rather, the near sighted powerful wealth driven monopolize our world.
 
David777 said:
As long as wealth driven economic powers of endless growth, development, and overpopulation continue to dominate, homo sapiens will be doomed. It isn't that there are not right thinking human minds and voices with solutions out there so we could potentially live harmoniously sustainably on this planet I'd argue is a paradise within our vast universe of billions of galaxies, each with billions of star systems with planets but rather, the near sighted powerful wealth driven monopolize our world.
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That's how it will all go, then maybe humanity will reboot once nature regains equilibrium.
 
Maybe we should use AI to determine policy as apposed to greedy and highly flawed humans. Imagine policy based purely on what's best for the greatest number of people as apposed to what's going to make the rich even richer or the poor even more dependent on handouts.
 
SeniorBen said:
Maybe we should use AI to determine policy as apposed to greedy and highly flawed humans. Imagine policy based purely on what's best for the greatest number of people as apposed to what's going to make the rich even richer or the poor even more dependent on handouts.
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There is more than one science fiction movie that is built on that premise, and they never turn out well. One of the first I remember was from the 1950s, about a computer that enslaves mankind, and the most recent is the Marvel Super Hero movie The Age of Ultron, where an almost indestructable robot decides to eliminate war by killing all humans.
 

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