"We live on a Goldilocks planet that has nurtured life as it has sailed through billions of laps around the Sun. Animals evolved from microbes that resembled sperm cells that wriggled in the sea; great apes, or hominids, were born 15 to 20 million years ago; apes like us, called hominins, arose in Africa more recently, and modern humans with fine-boned skeletons have been prancing around for less than 100,000 years. Plants assemble their tissues from carbon dioxide and the power of sunbeams, and we are energized by eating them and the flesh of animals that graze on fruits and vegetables. The digestive system releases small molecules from our food and these are propelled around the body in blood vessels to sustain every cell. The architecture and operation of the body is [sic] detailed in a cluttered instruction manual written in 20,000 genes spotted along 2 m of DNA. Construction takes nine months and includes wiring a big brain that endows the owner with a sense of self and the illusion of free will. Ageing of the body is unfaltering; after a few decades, the animal stops working and is decomposed."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Nicholas P. Money, The Selfish Ape (2019), Chapter 10: "Grace"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ecology
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Ecology
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ecology →
Related Quotes
"If we recognise that every ecosystem can also be viewed as a food web, we can think of it as a circular, interlacing …"
"If we have been slow to develop the general concepts of ecology and conservation, we have been even more tardy in rec…"
"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now…"
"We need to renegotiate our contract with nature. Ecology is a unifying force that can diminish intolerance and expand…"
"The study of public administration must include its ecology. "Ecology," states the Webster Dictionary, "is the mutual…"
"The disruption of the world's ecological systems — from the rise of global warming and the consequent damage to our c…"
"The extinction of Partula is unfair to Partula. That is the conventional argument, and I do not challenge its primacy…"
"All life is impermanent. We are all children of the Earth, and, at some time, she will take us back to herself again.…"
"Our way of walking on the Earth has a great influence on animals and plants. We have killed so many animals and plant…"
"A humbling blow to our arrogant outlook, ecology reveals that humans – who conceive of themselves as the most autonom…"