Two weeks ago I was stung by a wasp for the first time. 

I was sitting on a couch with people I had just met hours earlier when I felt a pinch on my forearm. When I looked down at my arm, I jumped up from my seat to see a wasp crawling on the cushion. I brought others’ attention to the culprit, to which most people ran out the room.

I left the room to tend to my sting. When I returned, the wasp was dead and gone.

I get why my new friends squished them. Wasps can sting multiple times, and seeing one inside a closed space is a scary sight. Still, I felt a bit bad for the wasp. Sure, they aren’t the cutest or most fun species, but it still was alive.

In a way, weren’t we the ones who were in their home?

Imagine someone coming into your house and getting up in your space. Wouldn’t you also be upset?

Over the weekend, I thought about how human-centered my actions are. The next night, I ended up escorting some ladybugs outside. On a nature walk, our guide cut branches off the trees so it would be easier for us to get through the trails. I even peeled some papery bark off a birch so I could doodle on it.

It’s impossible to live our human lives without affecting the other beings around us. I mean, we have to eat something.

Nonetheless, it’s important to be aware of the potential harm we may be causing when we live in a human-centered mindset. When we are too anthropocentric, too human-focused, we don’t think outside of what is most convenient for us.

Anthropocentrism influences some of the biggest contributors to climate change. It helps to justify industrialization and industry as people only think about their own conveniences, not necessarily with the full implications in mind. Sure, it is a matter of survival in order to meet our basic needs as a species, but what is at stake with further industrialization and technological development?

For example, fossil fuel energy was historically needed for economic growth and productivity, which is how capitalism and industry contributed to the release of greenhouse gases. As people demand more for the conveniences of their own lives and companies innovate more goods to sell, this production continues to contribute to the warming of the planet as the ozone layer deteriorates. 

Consumer capitalism is inherently anthropocentric because it focuses on people being consumers and sellers, and demand can lead to wasteful means of production. Corporations often focus on efficiency at the cost of environmental wellbeing. We as people end up disregarding other lives, who are at risk because of the effects of climate change.

What can the world look like when we work outside of an anthropocentric framework? What can the world look like when we start to live with the world around us instead of in the world?

We can look to the solarpunk movement, which strives towards sustainable futures that care for the Earth. We can look to the land back movement, which works towards Indigenous sovereignty. When we think future-oriented, at what is best for 

I look down at the site of my wasp sting and reflect on my interactions with others, both human and nonhuman. I need to continue to put myself in the shoes, or wings, of others in order to be a considerate community member to everyone in the world I live in.