We humans are but one species among millions on Earth, yet we fulfil no useful ecological function - yet.

Even the humble worm has a purpose. It eats fallen vegetable matter and liberates the nutrients on behalf of the plants. In so doing, it gets a meal.

And some types of bacteria actually make clouds. Ice nucleating bacteria, as they are known, create a substrate upon which atmospheric water vapor condenses into the ice crystals, from which clouds are made.

A similar ice process is provided by marine plankton such as the diatom below. These creatures produce a molecule called DMS that creates clouds over the ocean. And the clouds from the ocean provide the rain that waters our food crops.

Worms, bacteria and plankton all help to create the natural capital that our human civilisation relies on for its prosperity. It seems like every living thing on this planet has a role in nurturing the natural biological system. Apart from the humans, that is.

What do we humans do for the planet? How do we pull our weight? It seems that the only thing that we humans are good for is trashing the place. It seems like racing to extinction is going to be our most lasting achievement.

The bigger question, is what can we do for the planet?



What role could we humans play, assuming that we decided that extinction didn't make any sense?

James Lovelock, the man behind Gaia Theory, says that humans offer the biosphere something that all of the other species combined cannot: consciousness. Self awareness. Through the humans, he says, the biosphere can comprehend itself. Our planet is sentient, because of us.

After all, it wasn't a dolphin or a dog that went to the Moon and captured the Earth-rise photo. Humans that did that.

The other thing that we can do is to actively increase the resilience of the biosphere from external shocks. In this way we can be agents of change, helping the Earth's living systems to live out its allotted time before our sun dies.

The diagram below is from the Long Future Foundation of which I am a co-founder. It shows that humans have fallen out-of-sync with nature and that the opportunity exists for us to get back-in-sync with nature.

You'll notice that back-in-sync gives us a billion years (or more) - the long future - and that the biosphere can be much bigger, so that there is more to go around.

That's our role. Our job is to nurture the Earth's living systems into full health, and live off the interest of that bounty.





In some cases we need to just leave things alone (old growth forests), exploit them with intelligence (sustainable fisheries) or even regenerate them (planting forests in deserts). Our cities could become rich in biodiversity, the oceans full of fish, the air with birds.

There is work enough in this to keep all 7.3 billion of us busy.

It's not our job to colonize the dead planet Mars, but to nurture the living planet Earth. Mars is for Martians. Yes, we should go to Mars one day, but not for a million years at least. Maybe by then we'll know how to get there without trashing the Earth in the process.

If we humans focus on restoring and nurturing nature as the priority, we can end our continual search for meaning. We will know why we are here.

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