TED lecture: Paul MacCready on nature vs. humans

Paul MacCready on nature vs. humans | Video on TED.com

Paul MacCready looks at a planet on which humans have utterly dominated nature, and talks about what we can do to preserve nature's balance.

"Now human related to animals: look at what I call the human portion -- humans and their livestock and pets -- versus the natural portion -- all the other wild animals-- these are vertebrates and all the birds, etc. in the land and air, not in the water. How does it balance? Well, certainly 10,000 years ago, the civilization's beginning, the human portion was less than one tenth of one percent. Let's look at it now. Humans, livestock and pets are now 97 percent of that integrated total mass on earth and all wild nature is three percent. We have won. The next generation doesn't even have to worry about this game -- it is over. And the biggest problem came the last 25 years: it went from 25 percent up to that 97 percent. And this really is a sobering picture in realizing we, humans, are in charge of life on earth, we're like the capricious Gods of old Greek myths, kind of playing with life, and not a great deal of wisdom injected into it. "

I thought it interesting how much domestication the human has actually performed. Its staggering when you see the growth charts. We, humans, are responsible for this huge shift. And we are responsible for the well being of the animals we've domesticated as well as being stewards of the natural world that we've capitalized on.