For years, there has been a debate about SRM, a technology to

manipulate the amount of sunlight coming to the Earth. As the purpose

of the technology itself is to slow down the climate change, should the
plan itself be considered as natural? In my opinions, nature is not
only what does not exist by direct human plan and intervention.
According to Oxford dictionary, nature means:
The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including
plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the
earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.
From this, nature is anything that is not created by human. But
this doesnt include the case when human affects nature. In specific, it
doesnt give a direct answer to the question we are asking: Is nature
only what does not exist by human intervention? An alternative way
to look at this is from Christianitys point of view, humans are superior
to other species and therefore can exploit nature for our use. This has
been discussed in Lynn Whites paper. But being superior to species
doesnt mean that we are excluded from nature itself. This can be seen
by the worries posed when the world is reaching its carrying capacity.
In another word, we are currently unable to escape from the limits of
nature. We might differentiate ourselves from nature by technology
and societal organization, but our interventions nonetheless still stays
within the scope of nature. To be consistent with the definition from
Oxford Dictionary, what we created from nature will become a part of

nature in the end. Lynn White also suggested this in his essay: More
science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present
crisis until we find new religion, or rethink our old one. Finding a new
religion I believe is equivalent to changing the way of thinking.
Products of science and technology, at the bottom line, is just nature
itself so it wont be able to improve the current situation. Changing the
way of thinking, on the other hand, leads to the possibility of lower
consumption and therefore prolongs the harm for ecology. At the same
time, it will also allow resources to replenish.
When a thing or a concept is defined as artificial, it is human
related. But are artificial beings not natural? Darwins chapter
Variations under Domestication indirectly supports the claim that
human intervention might in fact still be natural. Darwin argued that
differences in animal traits are likely due to variations in living
conditions rather than due to crossbreeding between different species.
In a sense, crossbreeding can be considered unnatural, or even
artificial in the sense that being artificial is not a part of nature. And
according to Darwin, those crossbred animals could not survive after a
few generations. This has shown that any artificial beings that are not
a part of nature will be taken out of the evolution process. However,
adaptation is a part of nature. Being artificial might be a part of
adaptation as well just like how it is described in Darwins theory. As

being artificial can either be natural or not, human actions can also be
either unnatural or natural.
Knowledge is an asset that is possessed by human more so than
other animals. Having knowledge is to understand the world and
therefore leads to the possibility to deal with natural disaster better.
Human actions are unnatural or natural. The notion of being natural, to
me, occurs when an action of human serves for the purpose of
obtaining knowledge while other actions which human take to survive
can be considered as natural as it is a part of evolution. The
controversial discussion of SRM can illuminate this point. Hourdequin
mentioned a lot of moral risks and potential ecological issues as we
implement the SRM. SRM is used to slow down the climate change so
that the ecological bodies get time to response to the change. But
really, with the current situation of the climate change, human are not
directly affected so it is not an action to take for survival. Rather it is
the curiosity that how it might affect the environment is the drive for
the project. It is there to answer our questions of how much we can do,
and to obtain knowledge.
Human actions, while are artificial by our definition, can be either
natural or unnatural. It is that the purpose of the actions that will lead
to respective results will determine whether they natural. Only those
actions that are concerned with survival are considered to be natural.