Edith Crowther, July 5, 2023 at 9:23 am
Superb overview Gaia. What the French call a “cri de coeur”, but a cool and rational
one. Laying out all the problems like that, all in one go, might assist us to admit
that there is no solution that mankind can provide, or even dream up in theory. All
too often we indulge in what Britons call “salami-slicing” – chopping up the overall
problem into little bits so that we can pretend to have some hope of solving a small
part of the general (and global) predicament. But “solving” one part always seems to
mean making another part worse. It is now beyond doubt that we have already entered
the Sixth Mass Extinction of species (flora and fauna). A few species do survive Mass
Extinctions – which ones will they be this time? We do not know. Darwin and his
colleagues thought adaptability was the key to species survival – but when changes
are fast and furious, species find it hard to adapt enough or at least fast enough.
And there is evidence that some species which stubbornly did not adapt – ferns and
clams, for instance – have survived previous Mass Extinctions. Bacteria, viruses,
algae and other tiny life forms are also likely to be more invincible than more complex
creatures. But no-one really knows, just as no-one seems to know WHY Darwin spent 40 years
of his life studying earthworms, often to the complete exclusion of other creatures
towards the end of his life. He seems not to have known himself, it was just an obsession.

What we do know, is that having the courage to face up to and describe the sheer size
of the problem is producing some fine writing and videos from you and many other people
– so thanks to them, humanity is collapsing with dignity at least. Some of the fine
writing and film may survive everything, you never know, and some humans may also
survive to marvel at it like we marvel today at some very ancient examples of human
writing and creativity. Human creativity is paltry compared with Nature’s – but it is
still pretty impressive.

If humans could survive on their own without other animal species, I for one would not
mind too much – I cannot have conversations with other animals, or do anything much with
them and their very basic forms of communication. If only one could live on music and
the vast botanic world, for instance, what a wonderful world this would be. Sorry Darwin,
but even earthworms leave me cold.

But of course I am wrong because humans are wholly dependent on millions of other
animal species and the habitats which sustain them – and many or even all plants also
depend on animals for their survival. This is really the first lesson we all have to
learn, even if we are farmers. Farmers are liable to create monocultures of both
animals and plants these days with the aid of technology, and also to use up too much
groundwater.

In England the government asked all citizens not to mow their lawns during May, to give
insects a chance of survival. There has now been an explosion of all sorts of annoying
little insects and of course, people are blaming “No Mow May”. Hallo – could it be the
warming climate (the hottest UK June since records began, e.g.), plus the absence of
things that eat insects? And what about the crashing numbers of insects overall, which
“No Mow May” will do little to redress? I do like humans as I said – but really, some
of us need to get a better understanding of what it is that gives life to us. It is
certainly not our lawnmowers, ingenious though they are.

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