Man is a dangerous predator. As an omnivore, it not only hunts and fishes, but also devours vast amounts of plant food. It uses nature and other living things to survive, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
The problem is that, unlike other predators, humans overdo it. According to a new report by the World Biodiversity Council IPBES, it sustainably uses only a third of the approximately 50,000 species on which its survival depends. This means that two-thirds of these animals and plants are gradually becoming fewer or otherwise reaching their limits, so that they will soon no longer be available as food.
It’s as if a family has 30 groceries in the fridge, uses up 20 of them in a week, but only buys ten more when doing a big weekend shopping trip: In the first week there would even be ten groceries left over, in the second week it would just be enough, but already in the third not everyone would be satisfied.
Such behavior is extremely short-sighted, and one can only wonder that the species Homo sapiens, which considers itself (and in many ways is) particularly clever, can’t think of anything better.
Admittedly, it is not entirely trivial to use the earth’s resources sustainably with a steadily increasing number of people. But it is possible. This is shown, for example, by the fact that, according to the report, indigenous peoples in 87 different countries on a total of more than 38 million square kilometers of land have been hunting, fishing and harvesting for generations in such a way that nature can always recover.
Creating more protected areas both on land and in the oceans would certainly be part of the solution, because animals and plants would have a safe haven there where they could recover and reproduce undisturbed by humans. But it would be wrong to put a “no trespassing” sign on half the planet. On the one hand, because it would upset the people affected extremely against nature and species protection. On the other hand, because the idea that nature has to be left to its own devices so that it can heal itself, so to speak, is romantic, but not always right.
In many areas, such as fishing, it has long been known what needs to be done to stop exploiting the earth and instead use it in such a way that there is always enough left over. The clever predator man would only have to finally put this knowledge into practice.