Discussion»Questions»Life and Society» Humans did not perform well. They blew it! Earth is now known as the Planet of the Apes/Robots/Walking Dead. Which is preferable? Why?
That's just ridiculous. When beavers can carve a highway through a mountain or under a river, achieve worldwide communication or thrive in every earthly environment, your argument may carry some weight. As of now, it doesn't.
Sure it does. None of that chit matters though. That's human ego and nothing else. Bacteria strains have existed long before, in far greater numbers, and will continue to exist after us. That's way more telling than silly "progress". We really love our things and ideas but they are nothing in the big picture. We are so fragile compared to the microorganisms that easily kill us and feed off of us.
The issue I have with your argument Glis, is primarily you are lumping myriad microorganisms together as a single entity, when they are countless species, and they are as different from each other as we are from marsupials and amphibians. The point is humans are a single species, and as such, we are the most dominant one. Top of the food chain, while we live in symbiosis with billions of microorganisms. Beavers? C'mon dude, you can do better than that...
There are countless species of bacteria that foot the bill that's why. Just go and pick one single specie. The only thing that keeps pesky humans in check are various bacteria and protozoa. So many of them own us in terms of survival and numbers. Even single species of them.
Beavers alter their environment immensely, drive out and kill other wildlife doing, destroy the previous environment where they enter, change the natural course of rivers.
Other than humans no other animal upsets and changes the environment.
Yes, beavers are a keystone species, but no one would confuse them with being amongst the dominent ones. I would also add that just because a species is more numerous or longer existing is not necessarily a qualification of dominance. Humans are among the most recently evolved species, yet we thrive everywhere.
As for changing environment, we and beavers are not alone. How about locusts...
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at April 5, 2017 11:11 AM MDT
That's true about us but survival is the name of the game and the single cells beat all us meat bags.
The fact that beavers aren't dominate is my point that changing the environment means diddley-squat. We are incredibly fragile and rely on innovation to hold on. We survive and thrive because of our houses of cards.
Benedict Arnold 