People call things we build "unnatural" because it is not a direct product of nature. The materials we use for building can't be found in nature; we created them. We've made things that aren't completely something that nature provided, which is why those things are unnatural.

I have thought about this often, and was even going to post the question. I agree. We are monkeys with big brains. Our activities are "natural", just much, much more complex (and potentially harmful) because we can manipulate the REST of nature to a degree that other animals, to our knowledge, cannot.

Humans are the highest of all creation. All humans sense it through their subconscious mind. Invention is next to creation. As the highset among creation, man wants to say some thing that as great as creation. All other living beings live as part of nauture. Only man meddles with nature as if he is the king of nature.

Excellent question One would think any by-product of nature is natural Of course one could argue that we behave unnaturally, but does that mean what we produce is unnatural – I don’t see how Those who say we make things that are unnatural are misled; we don’t create, we manufacture; men have never made anything. Of course if you believe that everything came about by energy transitioning the unseen to what is seen, rather than all things being created from nothing, it is still evident that we make all things from that which already exists in some measure. This being the case our affect on our environment can only be viewed as the natural outworking of our existence. And from here there are so many places we could go with this discussion…. Who are we really?

This is precisely why Buddha taught that we should not get caught up in duality. The definition of "natural" is anything that is man made. It is a means by which we draw a distinction between what we have built, and what some other species, or natural event has built or otherwise formed. I asked this question to point out that it is just this sort of thinking that has caused us to manufacture our own destruction. The Native Americans understood that the earth was their mother, and all things upon it are, therefore, their brothers, and their sisters. With that in mind, they were careful to preserve nature, and to respect even the animals they had killed for food and clothing. They even went as far as to thank their prey for the giving up of its life, and living by a strict code of not over farming, nor hunting of the land. They took only what was needed for the survival of the tribe. Why? Because they were not so egotistical in their philosophy as to deem themselves separate from nature. It is not the evolution of man (as one commenter suggested) that has caused man to harm the environment, but rather the practice of duality that has led us, over time, to believe that we are different, and even more powerful than the rest of nature. We need to cast aside such distinctions if we are to ever have a hope of having even an ounce of respect for the world around us. Nature is our life support system. Cutting it off is nothing short than suicide.

Human being are a part of nature, in the broad sense, but they are not a part of nature, in the narrow sense. So in the broad sense, nature is everything, and human are a part of it. In the narrow sense, we oppose human and human-made artefact to the rest, and whether human nor their artefacts are natural (but for instance "cultural" or "unnatural"). Both views are possible and have their good and bad sides. Western civilization has been following for some years the second view, seeing human as something particular, capable of great achievements. And we went to the moon. But today we are starting to feel what are the drawbacks if you forget that we are also a part of nature, because of all these environmental issues. A great part of the Eastern civilizations have been following the first view. They stayed sometimes in harmony with nature, but sometimes also they did not make so big achievements or stayed oppressed by conservative systems (for instance, the castes). So it would be the best if we could understand that both ways participate in the global reality.

We ARE part of nature, and what we do is part of nature, but only man has the tools to disturb or destroy the natural balance of things. . To avoid that we must also use wisdom and caution in our choices. The consequences if we do not can be severe.