Why nature shouldn't be worshipped.

Don't get me wrong, the natural world is an amazing place. Full of, as Darwin so eloquently said, "...endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful..."

But it is not a place for the squeamish. There is nothing sentimental about nature, as I observed from the front of my house just yesterday evening.

A small hawk was flying purposefully towards the house from the park across the road, and on a downward trajectory. You could see that it meant business and I was sure it had a target. And indeed, a few minutes later it flew back over the house and close by me with a dove hanging from its talons and into a nearby tree, where it proceeded to pluck its victim. Well, until the magpies started to harry it and I think it eventually dropped the dead or dying dove onto the ground and couldn't recover it.

Such is nature. Tenneson I think overstated his case in describing it as "red in tooth and claw." It's much more complicated than that. I still remember the amazing footage some years ago of a small antelope that had been grabbed by a crocodile at a water hole in Africa.

A hippo charged out and drove the crocodile away.

Now, no real surprises there. Hippos don't like crocs. So the plight of the antelope maybe had nothing to do with driving the croc away. But what happened next jaw-droppingly amazing and very moving.

The hippo gently took the antelope into its gaping jaws and was clearly trying to help it and get it back up on its feet. There was no other possible way of viewing its actions.

So there's kindness and altruism as well as terrible killing. It's hard watching killer whales play with their seal pup victims.

But anyway, here's a very funny little video that reminds us of the "absurdity of the nature worship in today's world."

Note though, because of all the effing in it, it isn't work safe. Thanks to Climate Resistance for the hat tip to this video, which marked its 100th post: