Saving Nature

There are so many magical moments I have had with the non-human world I can hardly name just one. Often when life gets to be moving really fast, I escape by enjoying nature. Through literally 'stopping to smell the roses' I not only appreciate nature but am able to get my personal life back on track and realize this world is so much bigger than my small issues I am dealing with. Thinking back to a specific moment I was absolutely blown away by was when I was in Kenya on safari in the Masai Mara. There were not any tourists in the Mara at the time so it was just me, a small group of people, a Land Rover, and endless land. I remember we were sitting on top of a hill looking over a valley towards a cluster of larger hills when our driver told us the country of Tanzania was what we're looking towards and it would take us around five hours to drive there; yet, my eyes could hardly even imagine that because I've never saw a distance of five hours before! Nature made me feel so small and insignificant! There was not any telephone poles, no electricity, no lodging anywhere in that expanse. At night, I could see EVERY star in the sky. I cannot believe that's something that's withheld from so many people because the sight of a brilliant sky put me in the philosophical stance talked about in so many articles we've read about. In those articles, the authors discussed how humans don't appreciate nature and treat it without ethics because the philosophy we apply to other humans is not the same as toward nature. Looking up at that sky, looking out across the valley, I felt insignificant. I felt my issues, were not that important. I also felt more equal with everyone else in the sense that we're all on this Earth and rich or poor, powerful or not, we are all just one. So yes, I do think we should concern ourselves with saving nature. It shouldn't remain static and unchanging since the Earth is naturally going to adapt to changes due to human and non-human consequences. However since humans are the species with the most negative effects on nature, we should try and lessen our impact. This is especially the case of my views on the food chains in nature. In the Masai Mara, the Maasai warriors have had difficulties with lions because the Maasai herd cattle and the cattle is an easy target for the hungry lion. Historically, a Maasai rite of passage is to kill a lion but because of the Kenyan governments efforts to protect lions this rite has been regulated (Maasai warriors are put in a group to kill one lion for each age group). However, hostilities between lion and Maasai are great because lions prey on what makes up the Maasai's livelihoods- cattle. If the lions are exterminated, the gazelle, impala, and other types of animals will compete with the cattle for the grasslands, which will eventually be degraded without a predator to control their populations. Even though humans are now a part of every food chain, humans must realize the consequences of all their actions in nature. This is something that does need to be undertaken from the top-down, however it is pressure resulting from grassroots movements that needs to help the movements to start and be maintained so they do as they are supposed to.