A child sits amused by the activity of an ant colony. Fireflies, too, are an innocent childhood amazement—wonders of nature. Tiny worlds, big questions. Could it be, in the big picture, we are no more special than the ants or fireflies? Are we not, ourselves, the product of evolution and natural selection? Since Darwin exposed the myth of Adam and Eve, it has been accepted by anthropologists and biologists everywhere that we are related to hominins and apes, both living and extinct. While our existence as a species seems secure, is it actually? Today our environment struggles under serious threats: invasive species, loss of habitat, food and water shortages, erosion, pollution, climate change. Winning this war requires we act in consonance with the interconnected functions of our biosphere, where the community of man works together to change direction. Implied throughout is the idea that mankind can and will figure it out, that we will prevail.
No question, our species has dominated planet Earth; a place bountiful with nutrients, water, moderate climate, agreeable atmosphere—all the conditions needed to thrive. Our blue spinning orb is the only place we’ve found where we can sustainably live. It could be said that since Homo sapiens first appeared, we have enjoyed a type of paradise! Is it possible we are merely squatters, an anomalous epoch in the chronology of planetary evolution. . .like the reign of the dinosaurs?
A major leap forward occurred when we discovered agriculture. No longer forced to survive as hunter-gatherers, we could succeed (and even flourish) in one geographical location. Our deep dependence on and relationship with nature stems from our early history. Without arable land, life was treacherous. As agriculture became more efficient and mankind progressed into largely urban beings, our bond with the land blurred. Huge expanses of earth were systematically gobbled up by cities and expanding road systems to connect them. Trees, shrubs and grasses gave way to asphalt and concrete, reducing the soil’s ability to store water and nutrients while increasing rates of runoff. Loss of topsoil results in silt deposits in low-lying areas and the loss of quality cropland, ultimately leading to deforestation and flooding. We now struggle to contain the cost of human existence. Today, using modern land management methods, we fight the effects of erosion.
In the name of human progress, we unwittingly upset the natural rhythms of streams and rivers. We altered rivers and waterways to provide reservoirs, irrigation sources, power generation plants and recreation areas. While the magnificence of our achievements is remarkable, we also buried rock riverbeds that spawn fish and blocked essential salmon runs, trapped waterborne food sources, and destroyed downstream riffles and pools. We dramatically changed water levels, threatening healthy in-stream ecosystems. In many cases, we virtually flooded thousands of acres of pristine natural habitat to create a convenient supply of water. Through legislation and establishment of government watchdog agencies, new dam construction now requires careful examination of environmental impact.
Our world is under assault from cross border invasive species. Be it plants or animals, invaders hurt us economically, socially, and environmentally. Transported by wildlife, waterways, wind, and commerce, invasive newcomers push our natives out, hog essential resources and change the environment in harmful ways. Some non-natives carry risks to human and animal health while reducing biodiversity. Invasives degrade the value and quality of our land, food security is decreased, and pollution is increased by overuse of chemicals to control infestations. Already in some places this battle has been irreversibly lost. It’s a costly struggle, but a necessary one if we are to keep a healthy balance.
Another critical challenge involves the loss and fragmentation of natural habitat. Loss of habitat causes an avalanche of connected problems. When habitats no longer support what’s living there, we have displacement and reduced biodiversity. When contiguous habitat is broken up, separated by fences, construction projects, highways and other obstacles, wildlife home ranges are truncated or wiped out. Natural forces can be significant disrupters, such as weather events, wildfire, mudslides and earthquakes. But mankind has also wielded a heavy hand through deforestation, logging, mining, dredging rivers, destructive fishing practices, filling in wetlands, and clearing land for agriculture or development. Although not perhaps as publicly prominent as other initiatives, today forward-looking legislation and private efforts like land trusts help protect valuable habitat.
We all require oxygen to live. Air pollution is a growing problem worldwide, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, spewing of industrial waste into the atmosphere, methane production from agricultural animal waste, and most recently, prolific wildfire smoke. Pollution of our soils through dumping of sewage, industrial chemicals and agricultural runoff eventually causes infertility, making our land incapable of supporting crops and other plants. Contaminated drinking water kills people and animals all over the globe. Pollutants such as mercury in fish and seafood threaten our food supply. All types of pollution hurt both human health and wildlife—it also contributes to climate change. Pollution is primarily human caused. Once again, we wage this war through legislation and public awareness in an attempt to change behavior.
The fight to save our environment takes place on multiple fronts. Indeed, the problems are so pervasive as to blur cause and effect. Is erosion a cause of habitat loss and invasive plant incursion, or is it an effect of deforestation, mining and climate change? Is climate change at once a cause and also an effect? Where do we start? Collectively, these pressures squeeze us into an uncomfortable corner. We see what is happening, we understand the consequences, yet it seems we are powerless to stop the progression of events. Why?
Notwithstanding man’s complicity, could these assaults on our environment represent a higher natural force than mankind? Would our climate have changed anyway? It has already gone through many swings from habitable to uninhabitable—what’s to say it won’t again? What greater creation of habitat could there have been than the prehistoric receding of oceans across the globe? As topsoil moves, does it not create arable land somewhere else? Think of the southern coast of Texas, the Mississippi River Valley, the great heartland breadbasket. And how did our native plants and animals come to be here in the first place? Weren’t we all invasive species from somewhere—once never before seen on earth?
Geologic forces like volcanoes and earthquakes have pushed up every famous mountain range on the planet. We marvel at our Tetons and Rocky Mountains. Yet the glaciers, wind and weather wear them all down eventually. These same forces have been carving our canyons and changing the course of rivers and waterways for eons. We stand in awe of our Grand Canyon, Bryce, Arches and other natural treasures—all sculpted by the natural forces of erosion. In Earth’s existence, pollution on a global scale was originally caused by nature, not mankind. 65 million years ago, a meteor strike compounded with high volcanic activity virtually wiped dinosaurs from the face of the earth—mostly from debris in our atmosphere obscuring the sun. That was the fifth mass extinction event on this planet. Could we be facing a sixth? Look around your firmament—your own solar system. Isn’t the cycle of creation and destruction a fact of cosmic life? Stars go supernova, galaxies collide and black holes completely swallow everything within their gravitational fields.
So… all this begs the question: Isn’t it possible that, in the great sweep of time, forces we now consider threats to our earthly environment are completely natural processes. . .and always have been?
Astrophysicists warn us that mankind’s existence is threatened by more than a degrading environment and climate change. Even if we do escape a sixth extinction event, Earth falls within the “habitable zone” of our sun, providing a rare platform for life within our solar system. We know our universe has been expanding since the day of its birth, and Earth is moving away from the sun at approximately 3 feet per year. Already we have left behind 70% of our sun’s habitable zone. So far, there is no planet B.
There was a cartoon I remember. It pictured a mushroom cloud on the horizon with two men standing around the flag on a golf green. One says to the other: “Go ahead, there’s still time to make your putt.” So, nothing lives forever—an indisputable law of nature! There are likely hundreds of millions of years before our paradise meets its demise, so how should we spend our time? This is a classic spiritual/philosophical question. Each day is a lifetime; so long as our time remains, we can improve our paradise. There is a Buddhist saying: Don’t admire the beauty of the butterfly (because the butterfly will someday die); instead, admire the divine energy that makes the butterfly beautiful. It seems to me if we act to take care of our Earth during the time we are using it, we won’t need spiritual instruction. We’ll be giving it.
By Larry Gfeller