Planet Earth III (2023): Nature is God

Scorch Score:🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

My husband and I recently finished Planet Earth III (2023), a BBC film, narrated by the one and only David Attenborough. It received a well-deserved 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. I was completed enamored with each story of how animals survive and adapt in the harsh climates, and landscapes of their native continents. My personal favorite was watching an African leopard jump nearly two stories from a tree directly onto its prey.

Incredible.

Nature documentaries are always fascinating, but with more knowledge of the animal kingdom and the use of high-tech cameras, we can view the natural world through a more intimate lens.

It made me wonder: how far removed are humans from the evolution of the “natural” world? Are humans unnatural? Or is natural a term we use to explain things untouched by human influence?

Are humans harming the planet? Or are they a part of the natural order? I believe both can be true simultaneously.

We evolved like all animals, what we do with that evolution impacts the planet. I think nature must be every part of it, even technology. Even the iPhone 47. Although materials like plastic, glass, and metals are considered recent technological discoveries, and computers are a relatively new invention in Earth's history, this doesn't mean their creation isn't part of the evolutionary process. The materials to build technology were already present on Earth, humans figured out how to use them by 2024, and humans will likely continue the path of technological advancement as the natural form of adaptation and evolution.

The human brain is a raw material, capable of extraordinary things that hinder or help the planet. As hard as it might be to hear or accept, because of the rapid concern for the environment, creating breeding programs for Pandas because they have virtually stopped breeding on their own in the wild is an instance where perhaps humans are disrupting the natural order of selection. Darwinism and all that. Survival of the fittest. It sounds harsh, but it is interesting food for thought. I adore Pandas and hope they survive on this planet, but I also see the natural extinction process that does include human removal of habitats, but also depends on other factors of the animal facing extinction. To be clear: I never want to see an animal become endangered or extinct, but even before human input, species were leaving this planet for millions of years.

Animals and life will be on earth with or without the human species just as it existed billions of years before us. Now, life might look a little different than it did 65 million years ago, and some species will go extinct in our time period, but isn’t that true for every creature that ever existed? The nine-foot sloth went extinct in the “natural” way, by not being able to compete with the changing environment. Is extinction only acceptable if it isn’t perpetuated by humans? The dinosaurs were taken out by a giant flying rock, and everyone is alright with that, I suppose.

Now, I agree, humans can and are absolutely harming the planet on various fronts, making it a less desirable home not only for the animals, but for us as well. Pollution is so bad in New Delhi, that students have to stay home from school simply to avoid breathing toxic air on certain days during the year. Humans could make changes to increase the sustainability of our home planet, but our technology is driven by convenience rather than survival. We have the most intelligent brains of all animal species, but very little foresight it turns out.

Just as the introduced rabbit population in Australia devastates the land and erodes the soil, making agriculture challenging, humans similarly deplete resources at an alarming rate. This raises the question: How much more advanced are humans, intellectually, than rabbits in terms of environmental impact?

Humans rarely agree on large social issues like climate change or environmental preservation, but perhaps someday it won’t matter. I doubt humans will destroy the Earth Wall-E style. My theory is that mankind will destroy themselves until there is either a new evolution of human, or we are wiped out and replaced by the next leading organism. Even after nuclear attacks, life still survives on some level. Ready to start all over again if necessary. A cycle of life that is as old as time.

Humans are Nature, and Nature is God. Perhaps not a man in flowing white robes, but the planet and the universe itself. The trees, the deer, the rivers, and pearl octopus. We are all a part of it.

When we die, our bodies go back to the universe as nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

Maybe the science is right.

Maybe the Hindus are.

Maybe we are all a little right in our own way.

Life, Nature, Universe, God.

Different names with the same meaning across colorful cultures.

Nature is God because nature creates, evolves, lives, adapts, and dies.

The fact that we get to be a part of it at all should feel like the most exciting part of the story.

I have many people on Earth who I would love to see again after death. It’s difficult to wrap your head around non-existence, but there is a joy knowing it happened and that being returned to Heaven, Nirvana, or Elysium supports the remaining life left behind.

There is something beautiful but not expressly final about Nature’s death.

How can anything truly be final if the elements of nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are returned to replenish the planet, and the universe?

If mankind could view life with this perspective, with a capital “N”, perhaps technology would take better care of the planet, perhaps pollution wouldn’t be so bad in New Delhi, and plastic wouldn’t choke Green Sea Turtles, but all of those things are natural ideas and actions of a complex organism that is very natural indeed. Right?

This issue presents a circular argument. While it's rational to assume humans should desire a healthy environment, convincing over 8 billion people to agree on anything is nearly impossible. Wouldn't it be ideal if we could all align on a shared reverence for nature, viewing it as a divine or fundamental force?

Would we be grateful for what we have? Or would we still find ways to become the villain of our own species?

While watching Planet Earth III (2023), I didn’t feel so far removed from the other residents of Nature; Colombus Crabs mate for life, Pearl Octopus sacrifice their own lives for their young, and Harbour Seals support each other in mobs to drive away great white sharks.

There are so many parallels between them and us in every episode.

Perhaps we have not evolved as much as we thought. It's not creating the atomic bomb that signifies high evolution in my opinion. It’s what the species decides to do with it. How they use it.

From that point of view, humans are in the mere infantile stages of development. We have a long way to go. Perhaps watching more shows like Planet Earth III (2023) will aid in the human understanding that we are all floating on a rock through space, trying to figure it out.

And we all meet the same end.

Returned finally to Valhalla, Brahma, and the Universe. What will you leave behind?