Perhaps it is not humans only that are a disease of the planet. Perhaps it is life, itself. Should the planet revolve, rotate and nutate in pristine, lifeless purity?

david f,

I see life as a feeder, whether plant or animal.

Our early hominid days were spent as hunter gathers roaming the countryside in search of food. Then we developed civilisation so that we could stay in one place to feed ourselves (agriculture).

Why do you think birds fly south during winter: they go where there is a supply of food in warmer areas.

Why do think spring is a period of regeneration: so that there will be plenty of food available to feed the offspring during warmer months (if they gave birth in autumn how many ofspring would survive the winter?)

We're just a bunch of feeders. How does that make you feel.

We humans (Homo Sapiens) are a threat to the rest of life because we have a superior brain.

... get beyond whether humans are good or bad.
davidf,
The good humans are the ones who don't see the need to occupy pedestals, the bad ones do.
Same goes for effort for the common good, most educated beyond their comprehension fail miserably in that field & those who put in the hard yards get pushed aside AFTER they made their contributions.

David,

Further to my comment above, and right on cue, Misopinionated inadvertently responds with:

"I would like a few humans to disappear. Guess who they are."

Wow, he/she would fit right into a Utopian regime, as a necessary 'remover'. Socialist exterminationism springs eternal.

Joe

Wow, Joe, what got up your nose?
Going from my "people are fundamentally good", to your extermination scenarios, socialism, fascism and all-round death and destruction - of anything and everything 'good'.
Blimey mate, get a grip!

Earth devoid of humans, David f?

I guess that's one way to set aside any further consideration of how current Humanity may finally aspire to 'Humanism' and self-preservation on a planet still worth inhabiting?

We are here, hence we are meant to be here.
So, why can't we review current and past failings and seek a better way to go forward?
Too chicken to face the hard decisions - before we end up at each other's throats for that last 'dandelion'?

You've all gone nuts, and I've got better things to do with my few remaining brain cells.

See ya.

Dear Saltpetre,

Don't give up hope just yet.

Australia is a colony which started as a penal settlement
has led the world. There is so much we can be proud of.
We have characteristics which people throughout the world
remark on. Bill Bryson the travel writer in his book
"Down under said these words:

"The Australian people are immensely likeable - cheerful,
extraverted, quick-witted and unfailingly - obliging.
Their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built
on water. They have a society that is prosperous, well
ordered and instinctively egalitarian".

We read that word a lot, that word - egalitarian, when we
read about Asutralians and Australian values.

Have you heard of the term - "movers and shakers?"

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy, a poet wrote these words:

We are the music-makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams
Wandering by lone sea-breakers
Ans sitting by desolate streams
World-losers and world forsakers
On whom the pale moon gleams
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems

So please don't give up just yet.
A person's influence can only be judged at the end
their life. Influential Australians will stand the test of
time, I'm sure. Sophocles said - "One must wait until
the morning to see how splendid the day has been".

In this country we need people who can solve our water problems,
who can lift our Indigenous people from the margins to the
mainstream, who can save our environment from destruction,
and the list goes on. But we are a young country and
our greatest glories are still in front of us.