I’m no longer inclined to walk around grassy areas on concrete paths. From now on I think I’ll take the shortest route. And, if some wildflower is in the way, it’s toast.
I've felt the same way ever since I saw "Life After People" on the History Channel a few weeks ago. It's a documentary on how long it would take the earth to eradicate the effects of human existence if we were suddenly to disappear. It was supposed to be a paean to the healing of the earth once free of nasty old humankind, but to me at least it had a distinctly different effect.
The program projected the decay and eventual disappearance of roads, buildings, and other manmade structures over the course of time, and what became abundantly clear is that plants, insects, and animals are just as determined to take over the planet as humans could ever be. They may operate by instinct rather than thought, but they're therefore completely untroubled by any concern for any other species. The program taught me that if I don't keep a constant, watchful eye on my property, the plants, followed by the insects, followed by the animals, will promptly begin to take over and destroy everything I own.
The program is a great, though unwitting, advocate for human dominance of the planet.