Is anthropogenic necessarily unnatural?

Natural is a word that is thrown around a lot. Things are labelled as natural or unnatural. There is a tacit assumption that natural=good and unnatural=bad.

Natural has a whole host of definitions. The two chief senses are to describe normal behaviour - basically natural means that something is consistent with current cultural values, practices and mores. Unnatural in this sense basically just means unusual, minority beliefs, practices and behaviours, the tail ends of the normal curve.

The other sense is to describe things found in or produced by nature. In this sense, unnatural really means artifical - man-made rather than produced by animals or the earth.

I've always had a slight problem with this. All animals, plants and other organisms impact their environment. This entire planet is literally an enormously interlinked network of influences. We humans are a product of our surroundings while at the same time changing it and shaping it.

Humans are natural products of planet earth. Granted, for a number of reasons, we currently have the largest influence on our environment - we have changed it beyond recognition.

But we aren't the only ones to do this. Beavers build dams, bees build hives, ants build anthills. Are those things unnatural? From an ant's perspective, the area where an anthill is built has completely changed beyond recognition. On that scale, the ants have an absolutely massive effect on their surroundings. Is this unnatural and wrong and should be stopped?

Most people would say not, because beavers, bees and ants are 'natural', they and their building practices evolved with the planet.

Humans build cities. The areas where cities are built are changed beyond recognition, and humans and their city building have had an absolutely massive effect on their surroundings. Is that unnatural? But haven't we, and our building practices evolved with the planet? Isn't it all a natural product of planet earth?

It seems to be as natural for people to build and change their environment as it is for the beaver to build his dams. Unhappily for the beaver, we were just much more successful in modifying our environment to suit our survival, hence our population exploded and our effects were multiplied. But it's still "natural".

If we want to specifically isolate mankind's effects on the environment as distinct from the effects of any other species, the correct term is anthropogenic, which literally means caused by humans. Anthropogenic is not necessarily unnatural.