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