Nature research?

I consider myself as a nature researcher. However, my definition of nature includes human beings as well.

Surprise surprise!

It’s funny when I ask people about nature, the first things that come to their minds are the native virgin forests of Amazon, wilderness in Alaska, or the great savannas of Africa. I can personally guarantee that none of these pictures include any trace of humans. Well credit is due to all nature documentary film makers who have done such a wonderful job of keeping humans out of nature. We have bought that argument so bad that we have coined some pretty nonsensical terms such as 'human versus nature'.

Anyways, humans are very much a part of nature and have been so for the past 200,000 years in the 4,550,000,000 years of earth's history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Earth). This is equivalent to 1 part in 22,750. What does this number mean? This is approximately equivalent to 1 day in the life of a human being living for 62 years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy). To put it in visual context that my grandfather can understand (he was a rice farmer!), this is equivalent to taking one grain in 568 grams (about 1 pound) of rice assuming the average mass of 1 grain of rice is 25 milligrams. Here is an interesting story of rice counting for the mathematically challenged http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_and_chessboard_problem .

For those in the academic and scientific circle, I am a researcher in the field of sustainable development of human dominated ecosystems.