A little humility is in order
Published 3:55 pm Wednesday, May 19, 2010
In the uneasy relationship between mankind and nature, the latter rules supreme. Today’s 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens — and the resulting onslaught of mud, ash and debris that remade a vast landscape as humans looked on in helpless awe — serves as a humbling reminder.
Perhaps we shouldn’t need to be reminded of something so obvious. But then, hubris is one of our species’ defining traits. We keep believing that we can upend the natural order, and nature keeps slapping us back down.
We build too close to rivers and bluffs, then express surprise when nature takes away “our” land.
We pump ton after ton of greenhouse gas into our atmosphere, then try to deny or minimize the demonstrable damage we’re doing to our own future.
We drill a mile below the ocean surface for the oil that greases our economy, expressing unfounded confidence that nothing will go wrong. When it does, our outrage seems as genuine as it is ironic.
In our quest to exploit nature for our own gain, the tragic scenario playing out in the Gulf of Mexico is a prime example of our reach exceeding our grasp. The consequences figure to be devastating, to coastal ecosystems and the livelihoods that had grown respectfully and responsibly alongside them.
The awesome destruction caused on and around Mount St. Helens 30 years ago, as part of the natural order, was really just a rebuilding — part of the constant reshaping of a living planet. Today the landscape there is fresh, dynamic and teeming with life. The Gulf Coast will almost certainly tell a different story as millions of gallons of dark, poisonous goo — unleashed by man from so far below the ocean surface that humans can’t even go to the source of the leak — invades places where it was never meant to be. Thirty years from now, it’s hard to imagine this decidedly unnatural disaster having anything approaching the positive narrative of the Mount St. Helens story.
Nature is in ultimate control of its relationship with us. Straying from that reality doesn’t change it, but accepting it opens us to the possibility of more rational, sustainable behavior and policy choices.
If recalling the overwhelming force of Mount St. Helens’ eruption brings us closer to that acceptance, it’s a memory we should keep rekindling.
