water no get no enemy (Break Through)

I though I'd open this whole mess with some Fela Kuti. I don't know if Mr. Kuti meant it in any context close to how I see it, but great art is always subjective. Anyhow, it seems pertinent to the arguments in Break Through; the idea that our progress is in constant conflict with the natural world feels, at this point, antiquated. We've grown and progressed along side the elements, spurred by the convulsions of Mother Earth, not in spite of them.

The challenges of surviving among the forces of nature has given birth to all that defines of as a species and makes us unique: religion, science, philosophy, art...they all are responses our position within the greater scope of existence. Sometimes we've confronted nature as the "other," something to harness and exploit. These were in times, however, when the very existence was threatened. We expand when food is scarce, harvest timber so as not to freeze, mine precious minerals to stabilize economies and maintain social order.

Now, in our time of plenty, we try to isolate nature as the "other" to preserve its aesthetics and innate harmony. As Nordhaus and Shellenberger argue, it is precisely our success that has allowed us to expand our awareness to include the postindustrial desire of environmentalism.
We cannot abandon the forces that have created our impetus for change and progress. It is our history of being part of the environment at large that drives our ingenuity; so now, in a self-righteous paternalism, are we to treat our surroundings as a fragile mechanism separate from our own movement?

Nature made us, and we cannot relegate it to obsolescence and muséification any more than we can disregard and pillage at will. Children do not cast off their parents as soon as they can speak, nor should we alienate the very forces that have given us our creative voice. We are not enemies with nature any more than we are its police. After all, water no get no enemy.