My serious post about serious stuff

There is one scene from the Matrix that has particularly stuck out in my mind since I've seen  the film. When Morpheus is captured by the Agents, he is interrogated by Agent Smith. When Smith feels he's come extremely close to breaking Morpheus, he shares he thoughts with Morpheus. Agent Smith compares the human race to a virus.

I can't explain why this has stuck with me. It might be because I partially agree with what Agent Smith has said. As a geographer, I am constantly bombarded with images of the Earth and what happens within her. Recently, I've been studying for a health geography exam. There are many mentions of viruses, parasites and infections that affect different organisms. Perhaps this is why I am reminded by that scene.

A virus by definition is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of an organism. Clinically, humans do not fit this description.

The Gaia hypothesis is one that states the entire Earth is a complex living organism. Over time, the Earth is capable of fixing any imbalances within her system, just like you or I. The human body is made up of many different systems, like the nervous system or respiratory system, as is the Earth. I like to think of the hydrosphere and lithosphere as part of this system, each providing the Earth with a specific function but is also related to everything else in this organism.

And just like the human body, the Earth is capable of curing of what ails her. When a human body is infected with a virus, we fight it off. At first the virus is novel and the body is unaware of how to defeat it. So the virus is able to cause damage within the system so the body may fight it off. We've all been sick, and that my friend is a virus.

Now, the Earth must experience something similar. Volcanic eruptions cause temporary climate change.
What is the virus of the Earth?

Drawing from Agent Smith's earlier statement, I feel he might be right. After all, what on this planet, besides humans, is destroying the Earth's natural systems?

Humans have no natural predators within the environment. We're afraid of nothing and everything is afraid of us. When a virus enters the body, there is nothing to stop it from spreading until our bodies wizen up and attempt to stave off this virus. Until this occurs, the virus has free range of the body, taking whatever it needs. Sounds an awful lot like humans, who frequently expend resources. When we run out of things to take, what do we do?
Well, we simply move on.
Want proof? Well, we ran out of big fish to catch, so we go after smaller ones. Pretty much an ecosystem is ruined because not only have we destroyed a food resource for us, but we have destroyed it for the other creatures that needed that resource.

Viruses are very adaptable to new environments. This is why new vaccines need to be made because a virus will learn to become immune to it. When this immunity is required, the virus passes on this information to others of its species.
Again, sounds an awful lot like humans. When we can no longer live in one environment, we find another. Like a virus, we adapt quickly and share our knowledge with others of our species so they can live like us too. Humans have managed to spread to every corner of the Earth whether it is inhabitable or not. We've developed tools to get around things the natural environment does not provide.

Viruses manage to reproduce under the right circumstances. They reproduce exponentially, 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 4, 4 becomes 8, etc. Soon we're at a million.
Over the last 150 years, the human race has managed to grow exponentially thanks to a little something called health care. Plagues kept the human populations even, but now that we've overcome that, we're just gonna grow like crazy. With over six billion mouths to feed, resources must be growing tight.

Sounds really unfair that we take and take from the Earth with giving nothing back. But like every other organism, defenses will kick in soon! The Earth will develop something that will even out her ravaged system. Until then, I urge you to make the connection that we're a virus.

Perhaps we're even worse than a virus, because they take for the ability to survive. Humans have passed that point many years ago. We're all able to clothe and feed ourselves. We've taken enough from the Earth to do that, but it's not enough. We want more. We want that second car,  the extra television. And what does that do for us? Are our lives made better off by these material items?

I doubt it.

And I shall sit here passively while the Earth prepares her defenses for the virus that ravages her system. One day the imbalance will be corrected and humans will hopefully exist no more.

From your friendly fellow parasite.