What If Nature Is Simply Doing What Nature Does?

What if the natural disasters we see around the world are not nature attacking us, punishing us or deciding who deserves to survive?

What if nature is simply doing what nature does?

Nature is always moving towards balance. Populations rise and fall. Habitats change. One species creates the conditions for another to thrive. Chameleons find trumpet vines because wasps gather there to gorge on nectar. The chameleons feast on the wasps and a form of population control occurs.

Balance can happen in many ways.

This is absolutely not to say that people who lose their homes, are injured or are killed in floods, earthquakes and wildfires do not matter. Nor is it to suggest that they deserved what happened to them.

Natural disasters are not punishments.

But neither is nature obliged to preserve the conditions humanity has grown accustomed to.

We are part of the natural world, whether we remember that or not.

When we work with nature, an equilibrium of support and life can occur. When we disrupt habitats, remove diversity and attempt to control everything around us, populations can spiral out of balance.

Rabbits are one example.

Where trees, wild plants and suitable habitats are removed, the predators that would naturally help control rabbit populations may disappear too. Fewer birds of prey and foxes can mean more rabbits. The rabbits then eat crops, plants and gardens that people would rather they left alone, and suddenly they are considered a nuisance.

Yet the rabbits are not doing anything wrong. They are simply living in the environment we have helped to create.

Wasps are frequently complained about by people with swimming pools. Naturally, wasps and other insects need water too.

As humans arrive, neaten the countryside, add roads and build properties with little vegetation around them, the natural predators and alternative water sources disappear. Wasp populations may increase and compete for what remains: your swimming pool, your drinks and your food.

We complain about the wasps without considering what is missing from the wider ecosystem.

Plant more. Allow a few weeds to grow. Diversify the vegetation. Provide water away from the places where you sit and eat. Make space for birds, lizards, chameleons and other wildlife.

When the habitat becomes more diverse, life begins to regulate life.

Lizards might sound a bit icky, but why?

Why be frightened of or repulsed by an animal that is simply going about its life?

We may fear spiders and lizards because they move unexpectedly, because one dropped down our T-shirt as a child, or because we watched some far-fetched film that taught us they were dangerous.

Much of that fear can be unlearned.

Start by becoming curious about the wildlife around you. Watch it from a distance. Learn what it is and what part it plays. Curiosity creates room for a different relationship.

We are not meant to become parasites on the natural world.

Humans are designed to be part of it. We are capable of being participants, protectors and co-creators.

Harmony does contain an awful lot of birth and death, but that is nature. Everything feeds something. Everything changes. Everything eventually becomes something else.

Humans have very few natural predators, except perhaps each other. That gives us a particular duty of care. We need to moderate our actions and consider the harm we create, not because humanity is inherently bad, but because our impact is enormous.

We can become part of the wild world again.

Stop taming everything.

Stop extracting without restoring.

Stop acquiring for the sake of acquiring.

Work together. Co-create. Enjoy. Live. Love.

Nature does not distribute safety or suffering according to human ideas of deserving. Deserving is a human construct.

A rabbit is not spared because it has been good. A tree is not protected from lightning because it has lived a useful life. Nature is not sitting in judgement.

Lives are lived. Things happen. Challenges are overcome, or they are not. There is a simple kind of order, even when it appears chaotic to us.

Individual rabbits do not matter more than other rabbits, just as I do not matter more than you.

We all create an impact through our lives: on other people, on other species and on the world around us. It is a personal choice whether we try to make that impact net positive or net negative.

We do not need to blame nature for natural disasters. Mother Earth is not taking revenge. She is moving, changing and flexing her muscles, as she has always done.

The difference now is that humanity has built so much, removed so much and attempted to control so much that we are increasingly exposed to the consequences.

We build on floodplains and blame the river.

We remove vegetation and blame the fire.

We cover soil with concrete and blame the rain.

We simplify ecosystems and blame the wildlife that manages to survive.

When we push natural systems out of balance, the consequences can be indifferent, brutal and indiscriminate.

If humanity learns to live in better balance, perhaps there will be fewer growing pains. Perhaps some of the events we call disasters will cause less destruction.

We may build more appropriate homes in more appropriate places. We may create buildings that withstand fire, heat, wind and water more effectively. We may use local materials and designs that can be repaired or recreated after a challenge.

We may stop pretending that nature is scenery and remember that it is the system supporting every breath we take.

So the next time you catch yourself complaining about a bug, bird, plant or animal being a problem, pause.

The nuisance may be a symptom.

The wilderness may be doing work you cannot yet see.

Consider what you can do to expand the living environment around you and help it return to balance.

Plant something.

Leave something untamed.

Provide shelter or water.

Conquer a fear.

Explore what lives alongside you.

Create the positive impact you desire to see.

Nature is not separate from us.

It is time we stopped behaving as though it were.