A Dubious Honor: The Human Being Rises to the Top of the List

Here is a very interesting project. Let's compile a list of the most destructive parasites that have ever existed on this planet. We have to make sure that we include all of them, every single one.

On this list we would have to include the Neandertal prehumans, homo sapiens [thats us] and all of our other evolutionary ancestors all the way back into the past several million years or so.

Actually, I very much suspect that human beings... homo sapiens... probably sit at the top of the list. We are the A number 1 parasite in the entire natural history of this planet.

With all our capacity for higher reasoning, we human beings are still very capable of treating our fellow human beings quite brutally or of displaying an utter disregard for the often unnecessary pain and suffering of other human beings. Our species has never known a single moment when we were not waging war against each other, somewhere in the world. Those of us who have more than we need to survive in this world allow other human beings to simply starve to death or to die unnecessarily from treatable diseases, because too often we take the attitude that their problems are really is not our business at all. We have no sense that there is delicate balance in the natural world and we have no understanding of the fact that we are but one species among many on this planet. We see ourselves as the "masters" of all we see and want.

Given that to be the case, why would it be terribly surprising if we killed off a species here or there, without giving much thought to the consequences of doing that? Would it be any more of a surprise if we have caused tremendous environmental damage to so many parts of the world. We want what we want, without any consideration of the damage that results when we just take what we want.

In the most recent periods of this planet's natural history, we have witnessed some of the most catastrophic destruction and loss of animal and plant species of all times . These waves of destruction took place as pre-human species and then the more evolved species like the Neanderthals and the homo sapiens spread across the world. And as a species, we haven't stopped doing that since then. What mankind did to Easter Island ecologically and then to themselves there is surely a cautionary tale to which those of us in the 21st century should surely pay heed.

The species, homo sapiens, has a larger brain, a remarkable hand with which to build weapons and tools, and can manipulate the environment in ways that were never imagined before its presence in the world. Systematically, the fragile interdependent eco-system of this planet is being abused and systematically destroyed by what ee cummings called "manUnkind."

Let me repeat: We want what we want, no matter the price which this small planet will have to pay. All too soon, we humans may be paying a fearful price as well. As a species, are just too willful and shortsighted to realize that.

So if you are wondering why we humans... we homo sapiens... have earned the truly dubious honor of being the worst, most destructive parasite on this planet, well, now you know. To all of us, I say, congratulations.

Yeah. Right!