Man vs. Nature: Don't pick a side!

Environmentalists almost always value the natural over the artificial. They say that humanity is on an inherently perilous path, with accelerating technological "progress" motivated by short-term economic interests rather than real human welfare or long-term sustainability; and that by contrast, the global biosphere, a system that has balanced itself over the course of countless millions of years, is fundamentally much safer. This is more or less true; however, it doesn't mean that technology is fundamentally evil. Fatalism to the contrary, it is possible to slow down and to think harder about the consequences of our actions. It's also true that however dismal their success rate, most human societies do have an explicit mission to reduce suffering and increase happiness and prosperity. Very few natural systems even behave as if they had such a goal.

To put it more poetically:

The works of Nature are great and beautiful,
and also terrible.
The works of Humanity are great and terrible,
and also wonderful.
There is great beauty and great suffering on both sides,
and in all the lands between.

Look up at a great tree,
and feel wonder and awe at the power of natural forces.
Look up at a great skyscraper,
and feel wonder and pride at the power of human hands and minds,
as well as sadness that our power is so ill-guided,
creating mighty weeds that grow out of control.

Realize that we know what harmony is,
and that we can learn to pursue it.
We are like any new species finding a new niche,
gobbling up all the possibilities we find without stopping to think.
But we are unlike any other species,
because we can stop to think
about the global impact of our species
and decide to change our ways.
We can drive the world deep into chaos and death
in an eyeblink of ecological time.
In that same eyeblink, we can learn from our mistakes,
and find ways to live in harmony with each other
and with our world.