Nature

Birds

Birds are among the most beautiful and cheering of creatures on the planet. To hear their melodious song, perhaps catch a glimpse of feather winging through the trees surely heartens even the most sour among us. Yet song birds are suffering devastation on a world wide scale.

Loss of habitat is the primary cause of the decline of song birds. As conditions become more restrictive , larger and stronger birds that have adapted to survival in human impacted habitat are thriving while smaller more habitat sensitive birds are suffering. Expect to see more crows and fewer titmice on your morning walk in the park.

Consider this an analogy to the current human condition on planet earth.

"Nature" and "Universe" are interchangeable terms.

Everything in Nature exists in the Universe. Everything in the Universe exists in Nature.

There is no such thing as "Supernatural".

Nature is a closed system.

Everything within the cosmic horizon is all you get. There is no free lunch.

First Law of Thermodynamics: Matter and energy may be transformed into each other but in aggregate cannot be created or destroyed.

Sustainability on Earth.

Historically, humans have developed plunder societies. A plunder society depends on resource inputs from outside.

Hunter gatherer societies, such as historic American Indians, depend on the abundance of naturally occurring foods and resources. These are not planted or nutured, merely harvested. Ancient Native Americans may have been responsible for the disappearance of prehistoric mega-fauna in North America. Post contact white settlers and hunters were responsible for the near extinction of the Bison.

Conquest societies, such as classical Romans, depend on the productivity of surrounding nations. Goods, land and slaves are simply stolen by force of arms. This worked well for the Romans until they were so far extended they could no longer defend their homeland.

Modern societies depend on resource extraction, manufacturing and advantageous trading with others. This has worked until now. We are now running into resource depletion, pollution of shared resources such as air and water, and overpopulation of livable geography.

The Earth is a nearly closed system. Un-planted crops, un-husbanded animal harvests, extracted resources, and coercible neighbors are in limited supply. The only relatively unlimited inputs we have are solar energy and gravity.