"'Ownership' of a part of this planet's surface by a short lived primate is a ridiculous concept on the face of it."

I would say this is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. A single human being may not amount to much, but human civilization is unprecedented in the history of this planet. No other species has altered the earth as much as we have, for better or worse.

So soon we forget that we are a product of evolution, the same evolution that produced the myriad other species with which we share the earth. Many of them are allies, many are essential, many are mortal enemies that could kill us all. And yet, it appears that we could go on forever, if we don't poison our nest. 

But a person who comes to believe that mankind is not part of nature, not subject to its constraints, not part of its beauty and its brutality -- that person has lost the sense of who we are. We live here, we are not an invasive species. We need to share the planet, but we don't need to apologize for being alive and wanting to live free.

Suggested reading:

The Mind as Nature
by Loren Eiseley
Published 1962 by Harper and Row

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