Quick thoughts on tree huggers

By ‘tree huggers’

I do not mean those with a healthy appreciation and respect for living organisms, which we should all possess considering the foolishness in denying the nature of the symbiotic relationship we have with our environment.

I am referring

to those militant environmentalists I have once or twice stumbled across who claim that depopulation would be beneficial to our environment, some going so far as to say the world would be better off without human beings. To these profound thinkers I would love to ask, how inflated is your ego in order to claim to know what nature desires? Or perhaps more relevant, have you contemplated the notion that ‘better off’ exists only in the mind of humans, and therefore without the people required to declare a moral judgement, there is no such thing as ‘better’ or ‘worse’?

Do you truly

believe the planet cares if we destroy the plant life required to sustain ourselves? That the animal kingdom has the capacity for such ethical judgments?

Most tree huggers with whom I have spoken hold these opinions on such matters for reasons concerning self-righteous entitlement and the social ability to shame those who question their motives. It’s time we realized that we can and should have compassion for all living things, but only as they concern our ability to maintain a harmonious and mutualistic symbiosis with the world around us.