Now observe that in all the propaganda of the ecologists—amidst all their
appeals to nature and pleas for “harmony with nature”—there is no discussion
of man’s needs and the requirements of his survival. Man is treated as if he
were an unnatural phenomenon. Man cannot survive in the kind of state of
nature that the ecologists envision—i.e., on the level of sea urchins or polar
bears . . . .
In order to survive, man has to discover and produce everything he needs, which
means that he has to alter his background and adapt it to his needs. Nature
has not equipped him for adapting himself to his background in the manner of
animals. From the most primitive cultures to the most advanced civilizations,
man has had to manufacture things; his well-being depends on his success at
production. The lowest human tribe cannot survive without that alleged source
of pollution: fire. It is not merely symbolic that fire was the property of the
gods which Prometheus brought to man. The ecologists are the new vultures
swarming to extinguish that fire.