Gaia’s Revenge: Why Humans Are The New Dinosaurs

War precedes the appearance of humans on the planet and, is in fact, as ancient as Earth itself. Every species has known war, and every species has evolved the art of warfare. From human Tomahawk missiles to fungal chemical weapons, wasp attacks and viral particles taking on armies of white blood cells, the best defence has always been offence, and survival of the fittest undoubtedly resulted in the survival of the most violent. Whether war takes place in our immune system or in a battlefield, all of us are products of a long evolutionary process that selected each and every one of us specifically to be the perfect killing machine.

But there is a much bigger game at stake: while individual conflicts and wars may be impossible to ignore, the broader picture is one of peace. The ecosystem ultimately wants balance. It also wants to keep as many organisms alive as possible, because mass extinctions bring more instability. Violence is an in-built function of the ecosystem which is there to release built-up demand on resources, clear out power imbalances, and create space for new species to occupy.

Humans think they are fighting wars over their religions, cultures and resources, but ultimately they are playing the ecosystem’s game: population control. Species whose populations proliferate out of control always succumb to cannibalism, civil war and self-annihilation. As resource pressures and competition within the species increase, so does the violence. As population numbers skyrocket, so does the chance of novel viruses and pandemics, and as the war rages on, new organisms await their turn to shine as they patiently wait in the shadows of quarrelling giants.

Humans are the new dinosaurs. As we annihilate each other and exhaust our own resources, lots of critters are watching from the shadows, waiting for justice. Waiting to occupy the niche we leave behind.

The ecosystem doesn’t need to defeat us. It just needs to wait. Every dominant species believes it is the exception, until one day it isn’t. The dinosaurs didn’t know they were dinosaurs either.

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