Black bear (Ursus americanus), Kootenay National Park, BC

This image, like this one, is becoming an essential part of Project Canada. It shows how a car stops along the road through Kootenay National Park, with a black bear less than fifteen meters away. The people never noticed the bear was there! Many people go wildlife watching in this area, many of them never leaving their car and surprisingly many of those fail to see wildlife that is not actually on the tarmac right in front of them. I never found a clearer example of this than on this occasion. This image symbolises how disconnected modern humans are from the natural world around us. Not all too long ago, not being able to spot large predators in your direct neighbourhood could have had dire consequences, and you might not have lasted very long. Nowadays that is much less an essential ability to stay alive. Arguably it is much more important for your chances of survival to be good with computers, or at spotting a cab in a busy city, a shoe sale or the cheapest cookies in the supermarket. 

Since the agricultural revolution and certainly since the industrial revolution, we have undeniably lost a lot of the connection between ourselves and the natural world around us. We have in fact tried to place ourselves outside or even above that natural world more and more. The idea that nature needs us as stewards -a claim backed up or even finding its origin in a number of religions- is a stubborn one. It might be seen as relatively sustainable, buts this belief for example led to ideas like that we need to hunt this and that species to keep a balance in the natural system. Unfortunately, more as a rule than an exception, this only tips over the balance that still exists. Think about how humans have exterminated large predators in Western Europe, thus leaving the natural system crippled because one of its cornerstones was removed. This happened in many other parts of the world too. The practice is not confined to large predators however. Anything that competes with us for space or food has to fear for its life. The only species that could almost always rely on our support were the few hundred that were directly beneficial for us, for example as food, muscle power or as company. Really, we do not seem to be very good stewards, even if you believe that we were appointed as such. I most certainly do not.

It seems that many of us think that we succeeded quite well in placing ourselves outside or above the natural system, but this is nothing more than a self-deceiving thought. Being so disconnected from nature may still have dire consequences, because if we would have remained more aware of that natural world, we would have recognised our destructive effect on nature, the impact we have on the climate and how our tendency to use natural resources to the limit (best case scenario), or even over it (more often reality), breaks things that may well be essential to the functioning of the natural system and therefore for our own survival.

Be aware!

Image number: ASP1202AWMC