"When we try to control nature, we often come to imagine ourselves as outside nature. We speak of ourselves as if we were no longer animals, as if we were a species alone, disconnected from the rest of life, and subject to different rules. This is a mistake. We are both part of and intimately dependent on nature. The law of dependence states that all species depend on other species. And we, as humans, are probably dependent on more species than any other species ever to exist. Meanwhile, just because we depend on other species does not mean nature depends on us. Long after we go extinct, the rules of life will continue. Indeed, the worst assaults we carry out on the world around us nonetheless favor some species. What is remarkable about the big story of life is the extent to which it is ultimately independent of us."
~~from A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us About the Destiny of the Human Species by Rob Dunn
