NATURE / CLIMATE
Aug 4, 2025
The Illusion of Human Superiority and Ecological Balance
"Nature’s ability to heal itself in a balance disrupted by modern humans"
"If all insects were to disappear from the Earth, within fifty years all life on Earth would end. If all humans were to disappear from the Earth, within fifty years all forms of life would flourish."
– Jonas Salk
A few months ago, I visited Yosemite National Park, a place largely shaped by glaciers. Formed through the collaboration of geological and climatic processes over millions of years, this region today hosts breathtaking natural beauty and rich biodiversity. In Yosemite, the ecological balance between plant life and wildlife continues in harmony, without human interference.
The same nature told a very different story just a few hundred kilometers away, in Yellowstone. By 1930, the howls of wolves had been completely silenced in Yellowstone National Park. Here, the intervention of “modern” humans disrupted the natural cycle of the ecosystem and triggered an ecological collapse.
As in many other parts of the United States, wolves were seen as dangerous predators and were systematically eradicated, accused of harming livestock and game populations. But Yellowstone would become the place where the consequences of this extinction were revealed most dramatically.
With the elimination of wolves, the population of elk, their natural prey, began to increase rapidly. These elk, now unchecked, spread across wide areas of the forest. Wherever they could reach, they consumed shrubs, plants, and the lower layers of trees. Seeds falling from conifer trees were eaten before they could become saplings, making forest regeneration nearly impossible.
Without young trees growing, birds began to lose their nesting habitats.
Beavers, which helped shape wetlands by altering river flows and using willow trees as building material, declined in number as those trees disappeared.
Coyotes, on the other hand, increased in number and became a new source of pressure on small mammals and birds.
Eagles, hawks, and other birds of prey found fewer animals to hunt.
Landslides became more common because there was little vegetation left to hold the ground in place.
Nature had now entered a process of collapse.
Eventually, that mistake was addressed. In 1995, 14 wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone from Canada. One year later, 17 more were released. This marked the beginning of the recovery process.
As the wolf population grew, elk began to avoid open areas and spent less time near rivers. This gave trees a chance to grow again.
With the return of trees, birds came back as well.
As willow trees reappeared, the beaver population recovered. Beavers began building new dams, and wetlands formed once more.
With fewer coyotes, populations of rabbits, mice, and birds started to rise.
Other species that fed on the remains of animals hunted by wolves also began to thrive.
Nature had begun to heal itself through its own balance. Although the visual changes over the years are promising, it is not possible to speak of a complete ecological recovery or a permanent success.
Today, as we attempt to understand nature, we must replace the anthropocentric view of the past with an eco-centric one.
For example, the verse in the Torah and Old Testament that reads, “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’” (Genesis 1:26), provided a theological foundation for humans to see themselves as superior to nature. This theological basis was often interpreted in ways that justified misguided decisions, at a time when many Americans had little understanding of how ecological systems actually functioned. Most people were unaware of the interconnected relationships among the members of natural ecosystems.
It is important to remember that Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man was not published until 1871, which coincides with the period when wolf extermination campaigns began across the Western world. Darwin’s work laid the groundwork for rethinking the relationship between humans and nature, introducing the idea that all living beings possess inherent value. In this sense, science has become our most reliable compass for realizing that we are part of nature, not above it.
