Do what you can to live in harmony with your habitat

On Trails by Robert Moor

I have an early memory of my great grandfather telling me how Native Americans always walked in others' tracks. IDK if that's entirely true, but it made an impression on me. A few years ago, I stumbled upon this book on my way to Peru for a retreat. 

The chapters about how Native Americans used existing big game trails contained a similar message. I also found it interesting how they "terraformed" the New World; or how the beautiful, manicured gardens of nature, which our ancestors encountered when they came here, were a result of the indigenous population being good stewards of their environment -- and how the lack of stewardship of our environment (lack of responsible logging, for example), it could be argued is at least part of the cause of all of these wildfires. 

Just before that time, and separately on my spiritual path, I had learned about Jainism. People who follow that path take a vow of non-violence, among other things. The common message of these disparate experiences is changing how I live. 

This world is beautiful, it's alive, and we have a responsibility to it as the dominant species -- and to ourselves -- to understand what it needs, and to try to live in harmony with it. This means giving some things up. For me, it's currently disposable everything. I'm still working on that.

The moral of the story:

Do what you can to live in harmony with your habitat. It doesn't need to be any more nuanced or contentious than that. You don't have to agree with the science, or with our masters' ideas for how to fix the bigger picture. Do what you can to live in harmony with YOUR habitat.