How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Line)
Quote #4
[…] they were no longer exploring untouched land, and the nature of the landscape itself was altered, split left and right by the parallel lines of crosshatched wheel tracks, and by the green canisters slightly dimmed by a rime of dust, all marking "the way." It wasn't wilderness anymore; that was the point of road-building, after all. (3.5.135)
Humans aren't the only animals who alter the environment to suit their needs. Beavers have their dams and such. With that said, we're obviously the best. Go team?
Quote #5
"I think you value consciousness too high, and rock too little. We are not the lords of the universe. We're one small part of it. We may be its consciousness, but being the consciousness of the universe does not mean turning it all into a mirror image of us. It means rather fitting into it as it is, and worshiping it with our attention." (3.6.125)
Speaking of altering our environment, we like the term "mirror image" to describe those changes. Think about it: are McDonald's and Starbucks not mirror images of each other in every city ever?
Quote #6
So life adapts to conditions. And at the same time, conditions are changed by life. That is one of the definitions of life: organism and environment change together in a reciprocal arrangement, as they are two manifestations of an ecology, two parts of a whole. (4.1.6)
It's the circle of life, a little less lyrical but certainly more informative.