The dominant view of the world these days is based on the assumption that humans are fundamentally different from — and superior to — the rest of the living world. Such a belief goes back a long way, as far as the very roots of Western civilization. It has given rise to a mindset of domination and conquest, in which human ingenuity is seen as the only way to subdue an essentially hostile planet.

John R. Stowe, The Findhorn Book of Connecting with Nature