Ian Rethinks Fritjof's "Facts of Life!"

Mysteries of life Explained

Fact of life: Life emerged victorious because of socializing, not fighting.

This sounds sort of weird the way I put it, but it’s true. If you think about it, it makes sense; the process of evolution works in favor of everybody, not just one species. Plants evolved to produce fruit in order for other animals to eat it and spread its seeds, helping the plant reproduce and nourishing other animals. Life depends on each other to survive, because all species are specially adapted to help other species, which in turn help others. This in turn keeps in place a system of checks and balances which keeps species from overpopulation or extinction, a process otherwise known as the food chain. Big predators keep in check smaller and smaller prey and eventually plants so food production and reproduction is fairly constant.

That is until humans come along. Humans are not inherently bad, it’s just that we have grown to smart, so this system does not apply to us, and that means we get reckless for the rest of life's sake. Now that we have the ability and numbers to do mass produced farming effectively and build heavy machinery that can harvest and use natural resources for our own benefit with no need for consideration for anything else, we are wrecking the planet. We extract oil in anyway possible, mine for metals and coal that we want, deforest the planet for wood and agricultural purposes, build dams and canals for drainage, water and hydroelectric purposes, and basically build tall skyscrapers and put people and asphalt everywhere. And what do we give back to the earth? Almost nothing. You can see this pattern is not sustainable and if we continue, will result in our downfall. One ordinary person can try their hardest to be as eco- friendly as possible, try not to use fossil-fuel related things, recycle and possibly compost, buy from local organic farms, save electricity, but unless 7 billion people commit to giving back to the Earth and stop reckless development fairly quickly, we as humans are doomed, but life will always prevail through socializing.

Concept: A Watershed System

All water has to go somewhere, and the force of gravity makes it go down, eventually ending up in rivers, streams and lakes, which lead it to the ocean. This connected patchwork of waterways is known as a watershed, and has a unique ecosystem. Migrating birds come to nest in the reeds in the marshes, and salmon swim upstream from the ocean to lay their eggs where they were born. But humans put up dams which disrupt the flow of water and make it hard for the salmon swimming upstream to get past, and that makes so less and less salmon come every year. Runoff from roads brings oil to the river, pipes take water from the river for drinking and agriculture, and concrete keeps water from saturating into the dirt, making it flood more easily. What you can do is try to restore your nearby creek and take away sediment that clogs the waterway and petition to remove the dams.

~ Ian