Why Do Humans Dominate the World?

I once stayed in a small apartment in one of the populous city in the world. From the twenty sixth floor, I enjoyed the purple twilight and cloudless sky. Sometimes I saw a thin cloud lined up toward the horizon, curling down like a rainbow. Right across the window, the street lights turned on as well as small bulbs and neon on every houses and tall office buildings. The sky was unclear, the stars were unveiled, and the moon was still shining. Toward the midnight, the world was still active and noisy, a world owned by mankind.

I woke up the other day on a sunny morning. I looked down the window and all I could see was an ocean of bricks, asphalt, and cars. I saw people all over the place, walked in different directions on the pathways. In some dirty areas, I even could not differentiate whose houses belong to who, because they were built very closely to each other. The skyscrapers gallantly stood all over the place, reflected some morning sunlight. People were so busy with all the things they own and they possess. They were everywhere, on the sidewalks, in their houses, in their moving cars, in their own imagination of catching the opportunity to explore what they have not owned yet. Although I saw some trees and flying birds, but I thought that they didn’t feel like belong to this world. Their world have been invaded by humans. They might ask the question why humans came to this peaceful world.

In a biology book, human is a type of animal; however, we believe that living things are divided into three: humans, animals, and plants. Why do we as human try to distinguish ourselves with animals? Humans rule the world. We created our own law, our own way of thinking, our own way to communicate, and our own possession as they live on this world. I have heard about “the jungle rule,” where the stronger should rule the world as they please. Are we really that superior compared to the other creatures? Why did God create us to be superior to the other creatures? Why do we have a brain that is able to build houses, rockets, computers, and city lights? Why didn’t God give the same ability to the other creatures like an elephant or a dolphin? Was God afraid that humans and other creatures would fight using their abilities? We do, don’t we?

When I ask a question why humans dominate the earth, I don’t expect an answer like “because we have hospitals and other animals don’t.” That type of answer leads to another question like, “so why do we have hospitals and other animals don’t?” When I ask a question why are humans so numerous on the earth, I don’t expect an answer like “ants in the world outnumbered the humans population.” Some of them may be true, but that’s not what I want.

We think that we are special creatures whose job is ruling the world and other species are just supplementary. We might be right, since a hill without flowers and butterflies is just a pile of bare land. A stomach without a stuffed chicken will just be a pouch of hydrochloric acid. A cart without a horse will not escort us to the trade market. We as humans have tendency to think that this world was created for us, so it is our manifest destiny to use whatever provided on earth to ensure our existence. Why do humans tend to think that animals and plants are just tools we can use? Do we really need a butterfly to see, a deer to hunt, a chicken to eat, a tree to cut, a dog to pet, and a fly to hit?

Meanwhile, the sun is up and the heat is creeping inside the room. The world is pretty fair for everything alive on it. It offers the same warmth to all living things whose home is on the particular area, but each creatures will absorb a different amount of warmth that the universe has provided. A tree will absorb as much as light through its leaves to produce food and release oxygen. A dog will expose herself to the sunlight to gain extra calcium D. A bird will use the wind caused by the different temperatures between two areas to fly. On the other hand, humans will absorb the “light” through solar panels, drill far away toward the earth for oils, and transform the light into a useful X-Ray machine. We, as humans, are growing, not only by numbers, but also by the abilities we have.

Living in this world is not easy. I watched a TV show of the National Geographic Animal a few days ago about a rabbit in Africa. The show introduced the rabbits by showing their habitat and what they do to get foods.  In her way to look for foods for her cubs, she noticed that a cheetah was staring at her in a distant. She tried to run away, but the cheetah was faster than her. She then found her hole immediately and waited inside until the cheetah went away. After she didn’t hear any movement outside the hole, she came out. She was about to look for food again when a giant snake suddenly grabbed her and put her head in the jaws. Now, the rabbit cubs would never meet their mother forever. Also, in a really young age where they could not even find food themselves, most of them would probably die in a few days. On the other hand, the cheetah would also starve. The cheetah probably had not eaten any food for a week. Every living thing will face dangers in their life. However, they also possess ability to survive under a certain condition. Polar bears have a thick layer of fat under their skin-covered fur to survive in the polar temperature. Cheetahs can run incredibly fast to catch their prey and survive. Bees can sting their enemy if they are in danger. Rabbits can dig a hole as a place to hide. Birds can fly away from their predator. Although snakes are slow in movement, they have deathly venom that can kill their prey in seconds. Cacti have a spike on their body to protect them from animals and dry environment. What about humans? We have the best ability ever to ensure our survival on this earth. Humans observe their surrounding and copy the ability of other animals. For example, we can fly higher than eagle with an aircraft, we can run faster than cheetah with a car, we can dive deeper than dolphins with a submarine, we can have the most protective house with bricks and concrete to hide from weather and predators. We have transformed the earth as a favorable place to live for humans.

Why do humans possess the ability to develop their ability? Are we the chosen ones to own the world? Why do we have the ability to make reasons and awareness of self and surrounding? Why did God design it this way? If humans were born as bees or dragonflies, would they still rule the world? Bees have capabilities to go far away from their nest to look for nectar without getting lost on their way home. A dragonfly can fly in an incredible speed and avoid all the obstacles in front of it. A super computer is needed to make those incredible fast decisions that the dragonfly can just do in everyday life. Aren’t those abilities enough for bees and dragonflies to rule the world?

Either humans were designed to be the kings of the world, or humans possess an advance ability to prevent their species from extinction, the fact is that humans dominate the shared earth. Whatever figure is closer to the truth, after all a special ability or appointment comes with responsibility. If humans really are the ones who rule the world, a social contract theory by John Locke should apply to the humans and to the earth itself. The theory says that not only the people serve the government, but the government should serve and protect its people. If the world’s sacrifice as food and comfortable living condition has been given to humans, now is humanity’s turn to pay it back. That’s the logic running in my mind.

However, after all the benefits and abilities that have given to humans, they destroyed the environment that they were not supposed to touch. In a book by Nathaniel Philbrick titled “In the Heart of the Sea,” people in Nantucket in 1800s killed sperm whales for valuable oils inside their skeleton. The people built whale ships and had voyages around the pacific to hunt them in a big number. Hundreds of them were killed. In addition, throughout the humans’ history, we destroyed forest and other animal’s habitats for houses and farms. We consumed more and more resources as our number grew up. Humans’ massive killing was not natural. If a snake eat a rabbit, the other rabbit will still be able to reproduce and ensure balance in the ecosystem. However, as human destroy forest and rivers, the animals and plants live in it will be gone, forever. Humans even went so far and left a trace of bloodshed in the history of their own kind, not to mention slavery, colonialism, 4 years of World War I and 3 years of the Second World War. People are as crazy as drawing a sword against their foes, and painting the land with blood and dazzle light of life.

Now after we understand the fact that humans dominate the world, don’t we ever think when will this domination end? Every single dominating species that ever life on earth has been extinct or at least reached a point where there are only some of them left. Dinosaurs was destroyed by meteor showers that either killed them instantly or transformed the environment into unlivable condition. Based on the Nathaniel’s book, researchers estimated that 75% of sperm whales population vanished because of the humans’ greedy of oils in their huge skeleton in a hundred years from 1750 to 1850. Most antique species of birds in tropical islands has been extinct because of fire or deforestation by humans. There were abundant numbers of these endangered species on earth in their era, but now they are gone. What about humans? Will humans become extinct in the near future? If so, how will the nature erode human’s population? Will they die by their own war and nuclear determination? Will God flip the earth upside down where a flood reaching a mountain and drought coming to the ocean floor? Will a globe-size hurricane come and sweep everything on earth? We never know.