We Are Nature, Lots Of Nature

The only way we can bring ourselves into harmony with the natural world will be a return to recognizing ourselves as part of it.

We are nature. We didn't beam down here from a spaceship. The Earth is our spaceship.

Each of us is a walking Madagascar of biodiversity, a unique biotic island unto ourselves.

There is more life on you and in you than there is you. 

More than 1 trillion bacteria live on the average human’s skin alone, representing about 1000 different species. 

These organisms are essential to our health, help with vitamin production, boost the immune system, and protect us from pathogens. 

For a long time we have ignored our rightful place and have considered ourselves to be "above" Nature. 

That was the original and most catastrophic wrong turn taken by our species.

This is the separation that must be mended.

We are Nature, and we are not alone. Ever. 

Nor do we want to be. 

Without other creatures that we have evolved with over hundreds of thousands of years, we would die.

Every human body has an entire ecosystem, and the health of that greater system determines the health of the body. 

It is becoming increasingly clear how important our microbiota is to human health. 

Our gut flora is even more numerous than that on our skin. There are between 30 and 400 trillion microorganisms in the human gut. 

That is 3 to 100 times more bacteria in our digestive track than total human cells in our body.

The only time we are alone, possessing only human cells, is before we are born. 

After birth, as soon as we enter the outside world, and over the next few days, other organisms on and in us already outnumber human cells.

Then there is the air we breathe. The air is full of life, full of nature. 

We often think of the air as being just the mixture of gases that keep us alive, but it turns out that air has a biota also.

Nature in - nature out, with every breathe we take.

We are beginning to realize our place in nature once again.

It is the only thing that will help us become more benign in the way we live our lives.

Protecting nature is protecting ourselves.

Native people know this, as tell us that the Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth.

Once we acknowledge that, we will again be in a place where we can live as a functioning part of spaceship Earth.

Here, there are no passengers. We are all crew.