View from my window

Looking out my window, I see a road with several cars, the surrounding buildings, people moving on the side-walk, and a few trees shedding their rusty leaves. So much man-made stuff, so little nature, I say to myself. But is that correct? Is that the truth? Let's revisit that list of things I see, shall we:

The road I see was definitely put there by man, but in the process, he may have had to call on nature for at least two resources - gravel and asphalt; the former is readily available in quarries, and the latter is a by-product of petroleum. How about the cars on the road? The major parts of a car are made of steel (chassis and body), plastic (dashboard, other interior elements, and wire coverings), glass, cloth, and rubber. Each of these is a step, two or three removed from a natural resource. Ditto for the fuel that drives the cars (petroleum). The buildings? Let's see - they are made of bricks, glass, wood, roofing sheets, etc. Same goes for them.

In essence, all I see came from the earth, and will "return" to the earth (the people included). The view may not look "natural", and it's unlikely any college resident would rank it as high as the garden in the Square, but still, everything I see is earth derived; all these things (and the people I see as well) owe their existence - and maintenance - to the earth. I think this partly explains why beautiful architecture amazes me - to see someone do something absolutely stunning with what the earth has given is truly inspiring, especially when I could never do the same.

But back to the issue at hand - everything I see can be traced to a natural resource from somewhere in the world (gravel from England, petroleum from Nigeria, wood from Brazil, etc). We have taken from the earth and built cities and civilisations, and like a good mother, the earth has kept on giving. What irresponsible children we make when we do not care adequately for her, and by extension, for ourselves.