264 - The Impact Beyond

The earth is overrun by investigators and engineers. The wilderness is made vulgar with the noise of tourists. We don't need their thermometers and saws. We don't need bridges and monuments. In the context of Tao, this is to violate the earth with human ambition and to crawl over the landscape like flies over fresh fruit.
~ from 365 Tao: Daily Meditations, Entry 264 ~

I am a big fan of documentaries about nature and "primitive" cultures. It can be really cool to watch honeybees as they go about their work or the various interplays between a predator and its prey. I also like learning about societies that keep to the old ways and have been little touched by our modern technological ways.

Yet, despite the fact I love to watch these programs, I am very cognizant of the fact that the people filming exert an impact on those being filmed. It doesn't matter if we're referring to humans or other species. The simple fact that there are people with microphones and cameras out in the bush alters the natural environment to some extent.

Of course, when the subjects of the documentaries are humans in the Amazon rainforests or African tribesman, the impact is even more glaring. By trying to learn from these ancient cultures, we unwittingly are changing them...and not usually for the better.

Every thought, word and action creates a ripple. Once the "investigators and engineers" have gone, who knows what their ripples will have wrought.