Raze the Barricades
The first principle of ecology is that all things are connected.
Life on Earth depends upon transfers of energy and exchanges of matter. All material entities are united. None can, for example, escape the power of the sun that governs all living and non-living entities. Thus, the fate of each human life is determined by the conditions it shares with its neighbors, both human and non human. We are all tightly coupled. ‘Our health is dependent upon ‘their’ health. Every life exists because it is embedded in relationships – the webs, systems, networks, and chains that comprise the Biosphere. Without these interactions, whether they are collaborations and cooperations or competitions, living systems would collapse.
What is true for individuals, is also true for populations. Porous borders are essential for maintaining life. The physiology of trees, amphibians, algae, zebras, humans, and dandelions all include numerous small pores and/or a few large portals. Pores and portals function as entry ways for life-sustaining elements and exits for life-endangering wastes.
Nonetheless, humans tend to ignore the intermingling principle that accounts for 700 million years of life on Earth in favor of barricades.