Re: Humans must learn to coexist (Letters, Feb. 20)
Mr. Connolly wrote an elegant letter in favour of changing human behaviour to restore “the balance of nature on this planet.” Unfortunately, no such balance has ever existed.
Mother Nature has never wanted a balance. Instead, she is constantly tinkering with Her designs. She is constantly changing the environment and creating creatures that are adaptable to their environment. Her process is called evolution.
Unfortunately, some people have the delusion that they can cause evolution to stop so that all species on earth today will survive.
For example, because the spotted owl is extremely inefficient in its use of space, nature evolved a slightly improved version – the barred owl – which is gradually displacing the spotted owl. Even if all humans vanished from the earth tomorrow, the barred owl would soon replace the spotted owl.
The delusion of stopping evolution leads to acts of eco-terrorism such as the recent cull of barred owls here in B.C.
Humans have culled deer for thousands of years. The current cull in Oak Bay is simply an evolutionary return toward the former “balance” of the two species.
I doubt that any human could force evolution to stop – not even a famous scientist. Amateur ecologists have got to stop believing that they can stop evolution. Evolutionary scientists should find the moral courage to tell people that it is not possible to achieve an imagined perfect time that never existed.
David Stocks
Colwood