Two quick stories, and an overall point. I have recently experienced a resurgence of interest in all things Nature. In particular I have been having a lot of fun trying to identify all the trees in my neighborhood and in all the parks I go to. So the other day I gave myself the task of seeing how…

I’ve struggled with this, too. Nature doesn’t do good/evil. It doesn’t do pretty/ugly. It doesn’t salve the sting of death and it doesn’t believe in death with dignity - natural death is often horrible. It does do tenacity, and creativity, and diversity. It accepts and transforms everything. The co…

If you study Nature long enough and deeply enough, it will eventually show you everything that exists. This can be a tough learning process because you will get to see things you would rather not see, and learn things you would rather not learn. But, as is true of life in general, we do need to kno…

Welcome to the forum! Your mention of the gosling reminded me of this recent essay on the same topic which coincidentally features goslings: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/science/geese-coronavirus-humor.html

I think one of our more insidious traits as humans is our tendency to anthropomorphize nature. Growing up in relative comfort, under the jurisdiction of laws and human rights, with abstract views on life and morality that are very foreign to this world (when compared to the rest of life on Earth), i…

Many of us here have asked the same question. Seeing all the compassionate and empathetic replies you’ve gotten shows another side of nature. We can choose to build rather than destroy. In Romans 8:22 The Apostle Paul made the same observation as you did “For we know the whole creation groans and la…

[image] nickcarlson: because nature doesn’t give a damn about our human misconceptions. “nature” is a human concept that doesn’t really exist out there. A goose isn’t “nature”, it is just a goose. And a goose, like a lot of different animals, IS able to feel pain and to suffer horribly. It DO…

Domestic dogs are not part of nature, so there should be a long tlk with those owners about how to walk with a dog. All situation is not evin ugly, it’s the actual side of the life, you too kill thousands of creatures every day and don’t even notice it, to live an organism has to kill something or …

A glance to the question from the other side: how many ecosystems were erased, plant communities damaged, wildlife killed or drawn to starvation and died by creating crop fields? There is no correct answer to the good and the bad nature even from an anthropomorphic point of view.

Goslings have been getting ripped apart by eagles long before humans came around, long before even an inkling towards the concept of “ugliness” was a thing. I’m not denying that animals feel pain and suffer and would prefer not to experience those things, but if you’re going to frame pain and suffer…

Ugly side of nature

Nature Talk

botanicaltreasures May 18, 2020, 2:14pm 17

I see parasitic wasps as a mercy. Too many caterpillars can devastate crops leading to starvation.

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Ugly side of nature

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