Nature and humans

There is an interesting question which I came across, this question has to be elaborated, first we life on the same planet which we share with other species. Yet, for some reason humans seem to think that they are the only ones that matter on the planet or rather that the planet is there to provide humans with a more comfortable life, or in other words with the resources to provide the comfortable life. Is this because we do not see ourselves as part of the planets eco-system. Now I will use the word 'nature' to represent the eco-system surrounding us. In many religions and in the environment we create for ourselves we seem to distance our selves from nature. This 'separating' off ourselves from nature, allows us to see nature or rather the other creatures in nature, as being lower then humans thus allowing us to exploit them.
Does that allow for a happier life? Does the separation of humans and nature allow us to be happy? The interesting thing is that we depend upon nature for everything that we need, or make.