Plus It is not a new idea to understand that Gen 1 is figurative or poetic. Scholars have had many and varied ideas about the account of creation.
The birds have the air, the fish have the water, and man is from the earth, the dust of the earth, that is the element of man.
See that man is part of all the elements. He breaths the air, drinks the water, eats the plants of earth, and their is fire inside of him. All the elements are passed through him, sustaining him.
Man could not exist without these elements.