The world is a far noisier place than it once was. It'd take a solo voyage an awfully long way from civilisation to find the kind of peace that once existed almost everywhere. Inevitably, humans are responsible for this turning up of global volume, which is causing chaos in the natural world. Stressed insect pollinators, seed dispersers such as birds, and the predators that feed on both have been forced to flee to avoid chronic noise levels, thus altering not just the distribution of wildlife in many areas, but the shifting of entire ecosystems. Although people may seem to have become remarkably adept at consciously filtering out excess noise, there's a well-documented public health crisis looming for us too. Stress, disrupted sleep patterns and high blood pressure are just a few of the symptoms. While other environmental issues such as climate change are increasingly in the public eye, noise pollution is seldom discussed. Why? Although 1 it's undoubtedly easier for everyone from government level down to individuals to pretend that it doesn't exist, this seems an unlikely reason. A few conveniently blame business and industry.

The people of your culture cling with fanatical tenacity to the specialness of man. They want desperately to perceive a vast gulf between man and the rest of creation. This mythology of human superiority justifies their doing whatever they please with the world, just the way Hitler's mythology of Aryan superiority justified his doing whatever he pleased with Europe. But in the end, this mythology is not deeply satisfying. The Takers are a profoundly lonely people. The world for them is enemy territory, and they live in it like an army of occupation, alienated and isolated by their extraordinary specialness.