Imagine there was a safari park, complete with big cats, monkeys, zebras, giraffes etc. Now, imagine that the human keepers became extinct and the park was left to its own devices, with all the cage doors left open. There would be chaos of course, and it’s pretty obvious that the big cats would rule the roost, eating the other inhabitants. They’d be forgiven for thinking that the park was theirs, and their alone. They might even believe that everything in the park was made for them.  But fairly soon they’d be in trouble as the large mammals they fed off became extinct, and they would starve. It’s likely that animals that were more adept to surviving on the natural habitat, and which are a diverse diet, such as Meerkats, would outlive them. 

We are living in a huge safari park. We live on a planet with finite resources. Human Beings are the lions. The difference between us and them, is that we are aware of our plight. We know that resources are delicately balanced. We understand that, if we don’t care for the ecosystems we depend on, they will perish. 

The Safari park didn’t have creatures who could inform them, and warn them of their fragile position. The lions couldn’t adapt and alter their lifestyle, they were trapped in a one-dimensional state of hunt meat, kill, eat or die. We can. We can change our course, we can heed the warning signs, we can choose a different path. 

The world wasn’t made solely for us. It is lions that are dictating our current trajectory. They are in control, and they pushing us to the cliff edge. They are roaring loudly that there is nothing to worry about; there is enough meat for everyone. It’s scary standing up to lions. It takes courage. But we must do it, because the lions don’t have the reasoning or the mental capacity to understand that they are wrong.