Does Evolution Grant Us Supremacy Over Other Creatures?

hamid | June 11, 2025, 2:34 a.m.

Why do we take so much for granted? Each day, we rise with the sun, drink ancient waters, breathe air purified by trees, and eat from the soil’s quiet generosity. Yet how rarely do we pause, not just to admire, but to respect. Not just to enjoy, but to protect. Nature owes us nothing, yet gives us everything. Still, we build higher, consume faster, and dig deeper. We believe, somehow, that the Earth exists for us alone. We wrap our ambition in the language of growth and call it progress. But this is not progress. This is forgetting. We claim we are different because we reason, because we invent, because we evolved. But what has evolution given us, if not the power to dominate what we once lived in balance with? Does intelligence entitle us to exploit, or does it compel us to care? What separates us from the predator stalking its prey? Perhaps it is the choice not to destroy, even when we can. That choice is what should make us human. We have built cities, networks, and empires. But at their core, they are no different than forests. Both pulse with life. Both depend on balance. The forest lives in harmony. We, too often, live in conquest. We have leveled landscapes, extinguished species, poisoned rivers, and darkened skies. Not from need, but from convenience, comfort, and profit. As if nature were a resource without limit. But the Earth is not ours. We belong to it. This is not just a philosophical thought. It is a moral reckoning. We, who call ourselves evolved, must understand that power does not mean dominion. It means responsibility. It means stewardship. Let us stop acting like masters. Let us become caretakers. Let us build a world where progress does not mean extinction. Where our children inherit forests, not deserts. Oceans teeming with life, not plastic. Air that gives breath, not sickness. The Earth does not need us. But we need the Earth. Let us stop taking it for granted before there is nothing left to save.