A couple of geologists on a class trip referred to the dynamite blast marks along a railroad cut as "weathering," explaining that the term included human acts among the forces, wind, water, temperature change, and so forth, acting upon the earth.

That these biologists seem incapable of accepting human acts as part of the combination of forces acting on animal populations signals their recognition of human exceptionalism. They understand our role as the stewards of material creation, as the namers of all that move upon the earth, even as then oppose it.