The Green

"Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The term generally does not include manufactured objects and human interaction unless qualified in ways such as, e.g., "human nature" or "the whole of nature". Nature is also generally distinguished from the supernatural. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the galactic." (Wikipedia) [en.wikipedia.org]

The question of whether something is natural can be a very difficult one to answer in some cases. For instance, is a wooden table natural? All of the parts that make up the table come from natural materials (trees), but would nature order those pieces in that configuration, does nature sand paper the wood to a smooth surface? The larger question here relates to humanity at large, how much are humans part of the natural system? If humans are accepted as natural, which is a reasonable statement, then does everything we produce become natural by the fact that the bodies we use to make things is considered to be natural? One can also apply this critical thinking to objects that are synthesized, like artificial diamonds. The artificial diamond is nearly identical to a diamond produced by nature, so what makes the two things separate?