Class Reading Reflection 2-- Rachel Freeman

   While doing the reading for this week, what first stuck out to me is how the author described that all biological energy on Earth is essentially solar energy, because it originates through photosynthesis and travels through food webs. This makes me think of when we talked about how humans have a responsibility to nature because we are actually one with it; the fact that we get our energy from the sun on the most basic level should be proof that solar energy would be a sufficient source for our other needs like electricity. It's a good way to think about how we are not above nature, even in our developing technological and industrial world. 

   I also think it was cool to think about how humans' ability to use both plants and animals for energy and nutrients inherently puts us at the top of the food chain. We are tertiary consumers, which means we consume organisms from practically all of the lower levels of the food web. I've never thought about how much advantage that has given us in how we have developed as a society, and I wonder how life would be completely different if humans were strictly vegetarian or vegan just because of our biology. I like how this chapter sheds light on the fact that since we have the ability to consume anything we want, it has played a role in how we will do anything to get food as soon as possible, including adopting unhealthy methods such as unethical meat processing. Since our metabolisms are so versatile, the abundance of options for food has allowed our population to grow so much. I think it's interesting that a simple thing like the way we consume energy would build into our ability to distribute specialized roles in developed societies, such as hunter-gatherer scenes. Thus, we transformed the world to cater to our own needs, and in turn, both harmed ecosystems and paved way for new ones in agricultural regions. The rest is history as we learned how to govern ourselves and form markets, which all started with our evolved ability to use any resource to our advantage.