We are all so concerned about living. Understandably we want ever human to have a full and enriching life that gives them every opportunity to prosper. Then at a ripe old age they die while others are born. So goes the circle of life.

Life also exists within something called a food chain. That is, every living thing is linked like a chain to others. For instance cattle eat plants while wolves eat cattle. Humans for the most part are linked to almost everything as they are omnivores, able to digest pretty well anything. And why is this linking important? Well, it is the way energy gets passed along from one creature to another. If we have nothing to eat then we die. If rabbits have no greens to eat then they all die. This is a pretty simple concept in one sense but it gets very complicated very quickly as most living things interconnect into a food web which consists of many linked food chains.

This food web concept works quite well and even gave Darwin some great ideas. It also shows how humans are affecting other lives. Recently, we’ve made use of technology to give us the upper hand in our struggle to obtain nutritional energy. And we’ve really succeeded. We’ve eliminated (eaten) most of our direct competitors and now we’re working our way through the food web devouring one species after another. In one sense this is good as all remaining species will exist only because they have a direct benefit for humankind. But, is this the only way to judge the value of a life? Do you think that there may be other reasons for a species to exist than to give energy to humans?