Ants and Us

The book gives a really interesting example of the thousands of different species of ants around the world and how they adapt to be fitting to their environment, so they are not only beneficial to their species, but also to their surroundings. Humans, in some ways, are similar to ants in that we have developed different cultures and practices in countries all over the world in different ecosystems. However, with humans, (and for the sake of this example lets think of different cultures of people as different species of human),  like the book says, because of our use/transfer of goods and energy, some species thrive, while others decline. This is because some species have managed to develop faster than others, due to power and money; and of course power and money often lead to the accumulation of more assets, furthering still the development of those species. Thanks to the idea of "developed" and "undeveloped" countries and the ramifications that go along with those, we have gone global. Globalization has made us all co-dependent on each other, and is I believe, a big part of the reason that things like changing our behavior to fit climate change, etc., is  so difficult. We have built this web that gets more and more delicate, and more and more intricate with every advance of industry. The big problem with this is that when something goes wrong, it upsets the ENTIRE system and causes big problems for everything and everyone. This is why it is so important to support local businesses and food sources. We need to stop depending on all of the different species of people all over the world for our survival. We need to strive to be more like ants!