Read Online Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You by Dan Riskin Ph.d. - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Dan Riskin Ph.d.
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medicine is there when she needs it. Let’s also make that medicine available to people around the world, so that no woman has to experience pregnancy in fear and with unnecessary pain. There is no justification for sentencing eight hundred women to death that way each day, no matter how natural that risk might be. Let’s let same-sex couples marry, not because male bats have sex with one another sometimes, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Nature has no place in discussions of social justice. We’re humans—we evolved in nature, but we can do better than the natural order. Let’s take a little pride in the fact that we’ve invented human rights. It doesn’t matter whether they’re natural or not. We’re animals, but we don’t have to act like them.
What I’m really advocating for is a rebellion of the human meat robots against our DNA oppressors. We’re hardwired to be selfish, to put our DNA’s needs ahead of the other people and ecosystems around us. It’s natural to care more about how hot your coffee was this morning than the fact that while you were drinking it a five-year-old girl in Tanzania died from malaria. But so long as people born in some parts of the world are doomed to hunger, poverty, and war, the progress enjoyed by the rest of us can’t take effect. Biodiversity will slip away because we just weren’t built to deal with issues of a global scale. But just because we weren’t built to do that job doesn’t mean we can’t do it.
Find a nonprofit that is working on an issue you care about and join it. Consider the World Wildlife Fund, Amnesty International, or even Bat Conservation International. Read books. Vote for political parties that respect women’s rights, environmentalsustainability, social programs, and basic science research. Tell people why you vote that way. Change minds. Volunteer in your community. Volunteer in someone else’s community. Work with kids. Do something to improve other people’s lives.
Just rub it in your DNA’s face.
It’s quite possible that the last time organisms on Earth had as much influence on the globe as humans do today was during the Great Oxygenation Event. But our legacy doesn’t need to be one of destruction. We have the power to choose our own destiny, so let’s create a utopia here on Earth, based on human rights, equality, and environmental sustainability.
To do nothing about those issues and stay immersed in our own personal, selfish experiences is the most natural thing to do. So give your natural instincts the finger, and be unselfish. It’s not enough to feel good when you see other people effecting those changes. For this to work, we need to do it as individuals. This is between you and the molecules inside you. Make the world a better place, even though it will be more work for you and cost you more money than doing nothing. We’ve been doing everything our DNA asked of us for long enough. Rise up, meat robots!
Shelby and I have big plans to take Sam around the world to see the wonders of nature. Someday maybe we’ll even hunt out those bioluminescent ostracods, the emerald sea slug, or that vegetarian spider Bagheera . I can barely imagine the thrill of sharing those experiences with Sam. Maybe Shelby and I will even take Sam to our campground in Texas and scratch the sand together with him to call in those pallid bats. Until then, though, my plan is to just let myself be in love—in love with Sam, in love with Shelby, and in love with the fragile, wonderful natural world.
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I . You can watch it on YouTube. It’s only a minute and a half long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbFM3rn41do .
II . In 1973, Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote an essay in the American Biology Teacher with the eleven-word title “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.” That sentence just nails it, and the essay does too. It’s a classic, well-written piece, and I recommend it if you’re looking for ways to argue
Nature has no place in discussions of social justice. We’re humans—we evolved in nature, but we can do better than the natural order. Let’s take a little pride in the fact that we’ve invented human rights. It doesn’t matter whether they’re natural or not. We’re animals, but we don’t have to act like them.
What I’m really advocating for is a rebellion of the human meat robots against our DNA oppressors. We’re hardwired to be selfish, to put our DNA’s needs ahead of the other people and ecosystems around us. It’s natural to care more about how hot your coffee was this morning than the fact that while you were drinking it a five-year-old girl in Tanzania died from malaria. But so long as people born in some parts of the world are doomed to hunger, poverty, and war, the progress enjoyed by the rest of us can’t take effect. Biodiversity will slip away because we just weren’t built to deal with issues of a global scale. But just because we weren’t built to do that job doesn’t mean we can’t do it.
Find a nonprofit that is working on an issue you care about and join it. Consider the World Wildlife Fund, Amnesty International, or even Bat Conservation International. Read books. Vote for political parties that respect women’s rights, environmentalsustainability, social programs, and basic science research. Tell people why you vote that way. Change minds. Volunteer in your community. Volunteer in someone else’s community. Work with kids. Do something to improve other people’s lives.
Just rub it in your DNA’s face.
It’s quite possible that the last time organisms on Earth had as much influence on the globe as humans do today was during the Great Oxygenation Event. But our legacy doesn’t need to be one of destruction. We have the power to choose our own destiny, so let’s create a utopia here on Earth, based on human rights, equality, and environmental sustainability.
To do nothing about those issues and stay immersed in our own personal, selfish experiences is the most natural thing to do. So give your natural instincts the finger, and be unselfish. It’s not enough to feel good when you see other people effecting those changes. For this to work, we need to do it as individuals. This is between you and the molecules inside you. Make the world a better place, even though it will be more work for you and cost you more money than doing nothing. We’ve been doing everything our DNA asked of us for long enough. Rise up, meat robots!
Shelby and I have big plans to take Sam around the world to see the wonders of nature. Someday maybe we’ll even hunt out those bioluminescent ostracods, the emerald sea slug, or that vegetarian spider Bagheera . I can barely imagine the thrill of sharing those experiences with Sam. Maybe Shelby and I will even take Sam to our campground in Texas and scratch the sand together with him to call in those pallid bats. Until then, though, my plan is to just let myself be in love—in love with Sam, in love with Shelby, and in love with the fragile, wonderful natural world.
----
I . You can watch it on YouTube. It’s only a minute and a half long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbFM3rn41do .
II . In 1973, Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote an essay in the American Biology Teacher with the eleven-word title “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.” That sentence just nails it, and the essay does too. It’s a classic, well-written piece, and I recommend it if you’re looking for ways to argue
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