Wohllebens and De Waals texts have a common message for us about the world we inhabit.

Do you
agree? Elaborate with examples from the texts.

George Carlin, an American stand-up comedian in his act Arrogance of mankind elaborates how
humankind exercises the need to stay at the top of the food pyramid and dominate every other
species below it. He states that an assumption of superiority, therefrom, naturally flows in the way
we conduct ourselves with respect to nature and our ecological environment on account of the
understanding of the complexity and sophistication of the systems we have built around ourselves.
However, Wohllebens The Hidden Life of Trees and De Waals Our Inner Ape expose facts that are
fundamentally deep rooted within a colossal truth that of the process of evolution. Human beings
are often referred to as social beings because of their mobility, ability to adapt to environments
and build civilisations.

However, Wohhlebens texts identifies that the complexity and sophistication of civilisation found
among humans is not unique. Wohhleben argues that with concrete example on how such
sophistication extends to immobile plants and trees. He exhibits how trees build an inter-connected
network within a geographical region by being connected at the roots, facilitating an exchange of
nutrients among the components of the network. Trees within a forested area, contribute to the
well-being of each other, thereby collaborating and achieving objectives of surviving the harshness
of local climatic conditions, wind and weather. The underlying principle of such a network is also
propounded by Aristotle The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The result of such a
collaboration is the extended survival of the species of trees that inhabit a region, contributing to
the formation and sustenance of a dense forested area. Further, Wohlleben goes on to elaborate
how trees also have the ability to communicate with each other by ways of olfactory, electric signals,
visual and audible mediums. The formation of a green belt (forested region) results in equality and
a distribution of resources such that every component of the network has the right conditions and
the environment to develop a concept so egalitarian that humankind as a species should learn and
attempt to replicate. A reading of Wohllebens text reminded me of Han Kangs Man Booker Prize
Winner The Vegetarian where the protagonist wishes to reverse the process of evolution and
devolve into a tree.

De Waal extensively studies the behaviours exhibited by apes namely chimpanzees, gorillas and
bonobos and tries to demystify the similarities between humankind and apes. De Waals texts
contradict Noah Harraris Sapiens and identifies how the evolution of mankind from chimpanzees
and bonobos, our closest ancestors is a result, not borne out of the concepts of Richard Dawkins
survival of the fittest but that of collaboration. Through multiple examples within the texts, De
Waal illustrates through experimental researches conducted on apes including gorillas on the
similarities that we exhibit as regards our cognitive abilities and behaviour. De Waal draws parallels
on how humankind resonates with a mythical celestial Janus head where we are capable of
exterminating other species that had once populated the expanses of the earth (Homo Sapiens
wiping off other species namely the Neanderthals, Homo Erectus, et all) to the cruelties enforced on
Jews during the Nazi regime on one hand and how human beings may collaborate and achieve more
from a symbiotic relationship that arises by being a part of a community. The lack of research studies
on bonobos have been a major impediment into studying how collaboration affects the functioning
of civilisations and societies, but with increasing research into bonobos, it seems likely that we have
a better understanding of the same.