Evolutive equality

Most humans consider themselves superiors to animals, our only companions in this planet; we constantly destroy their habitats, exploit them for food, clothe and use them as pets. According to the Merriam-webster dictionary superior means of higher rank, quality or importance. My relationship with animals is one of cooperation because scientifically speaking we cannot consider ourselves superior to them in most aspects. It is a common belief in this society that a person’s life is worth more than that of any animal but we fail to give a logical explanation to why that is.

In my experience I always try to help animals by taking care of the environment we share with them, not having any pets and certainly not using them for clothe. A critical error made by humans that’s has been devastating to the environment has been thinking that this planet is of our position when really it is the opposite, something animals know. As humans we destroy not only our environment, the one that nurtures us, but also every living organism environment. We don’t have greater importance than animals because if you look at importance in a view of the ecosystem we live in, people have very little positive effects on it while many other animals like bees for example have a vital role. Without out bees a lot of plant wouldn’t get pollinized disrupting multiple food chains all over the world, now that’s true value. (Michener, 2000.)

A usual statement for human superiority is that we are the most evolved species (higher quality) but in reality there is no such thing because all animals currently living have been evolving for the same amount of time. Evolution is mainly driven by natural selection, the process in which beneficial traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations. So a species can be judge as being more evolved if they posses characteristics that make them better adapted to their environment so they are more likely to survive until reproductive age. Organisms better suited to survive have a grater chance to reproduce and pass their favorable traits (Brooker, Widmaier , Graham & Stiling, 2011). With this in mind humans do seem like a very evolved species because we have had an exponential population growth and occupy a large amount of the planet but throw a person in the middle of the sea or place them underground any fish or worm would seem as the most evolved organism. As humans we have been greatly adaptable but only for our own ecological niche.

Human should learn from animals to respect and take care of our environment. We should cooperate with them because we relay on them for numerous aspects of our lives. Also animals are able to do amazing thing while relaying purely on instinct so we shouldn’t feel superior because even with our reasoning we do a lot more irrational things like destroying the place we live in. It is necessary that people realize that we are not superior before it is to late and everything animals and we need is destroyed. It is of critical importance that we learn to live in harmony with our equally valuable companions for both our sakes.

1. Brooker, R., Widmaier , E., Graham, L., & Stiling, P. (2011). Biology. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

2. Michener, C. D. (2000). The bees of the world. Johns Hopkins University Press.

3. Superior. 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved Feb 9, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superior