A species needs to have three things in order to survive: food, shelter and procreation. I would like to add elimination of competition as the fourth, because it seems that it is extremely important as well. Humans are often thought to be on top of the food chain but isn’t necessarily true. There are many animals that, given the chance, would gladly have us as appetizers or main courses. So, let’s see how humans are faring: FoodThe human race consists of well over 6 billion, and although there are many millions in poverty you have to be impressed by the amount of food humans are able to grow and consume. If you look at a map of the world you will be more astonished given the fact most of our planet is covered with water. Look more closely and you will see great areas of desert, most notably in northern Africa. Even for those places that are not fully under the process of desertification, they aren’t arable. ShelterWe have adapted to our environment well (some say too well!) since most of us have a roof over our head. I am fully aware of the scattered camps all over Planet Earth, but, even in these camps, people are able to create make-shift shelters which provide relative safety from the vagaries of the environment. ProcreationThis is self-evident in that, as mentioned above, there are well over 6.76 billion humans as of March 2009. We surely know how to replicate and we know how to duplicate. Elimination of CompetitionThis one facet of human behaviour truly sets us apart from other species. If you watch Discovery Channel or any documentary on any animal species you will see extreme violence, although if you watch closely that violence is limited. For example, you will see one cheetah chasing another out of its territory. Once that cheetah has achieved its goal (chases successfully or kills the intruder), it goes back to patrolling its area, mating or sleeping. Humans a bit more extreme. We love war and we hate the status quo. We say we want peace, we say live and let live, and yet we really don’t mean it. We humans have not perfected the art of war (although we are very good at it), since if we had we’d have moved on to something else. So we keep trying and trying to eliminate the competition (real and anufactured,ofcourse!) and keep trying to kill each other because, as one famous scientist once said, all of the other species do it so why not us? Well, do other species go out of their way to eliminate the competition? Unless they are expanding their territory for food (or driven out of their territory), animals have pretty much realized their place in the heirarchy of animals. People, it seems to me, are still looking for their place. Look at the violence in our cities and countries, look at the history of warfare and you can only imagine what we are trying to do. I cannot begin to understand why, in the grand scheme of the history of the past several thousand years, we haven’t done away with war. We can feed ourselves, shelter ourselves, and replicate ourselves. And yet, we cannot stop killing ourselves. Go figure. We have come so far as humans. We have so far to go. It is only up to us. Ends
