A fellow blogger used this quote:
If we do not figure out how to share the earth and the wealth, among ourselves and with the other species, as well as recognize that we live within the biosphere of our planet, not on it – we will not survive.
—Billi Gordon
Do you agree with that? I find it hard to believe that with our continually growing population we can “share the earth and wealth” with other species. In general if one species grows too numerous it crowds out others. Yellowstone National Park is a great example. When the wolves were killed off the elk thrived. That led to defoliation and overgrazing:
This hurt plants and other animal species. Willow and aspen trees started dying off — and that hurt the species that relied on these trees for their survival, such as the birds that use them as nesting grounds and the beavers that use the wood to build dams and survive the winter.
The numbers of rabbits and mice species fell, too, because of all the overgrazing. They simply had fewer places to hide from predators.
—When wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone, some unexpected species benefited.
People reintroduced wolves between 1995 and 1997, and the ecosysytem is in better balance and other species are thriving again.
As for we humans, there’s a reason some people call us the most invasive species.
An invasive species is a plant, fungus, or animal species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and which has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health.
Sorry to be a downer, but it doesn’t bode well.
man continually disrupts the balance of nature in his “almighty self imposed wisdom” which is not wisdom at all. nature takes care of itself. and the balance is very delicate.
I don’t think this post is a downer at all. somebody in charge of all the pseudo EXPERTS needs to LISTEN!
Yes, nature takes care of itself. A number of people are working on moving to other planets if we make the earth inhabitable for humans. In any case, I have great faith that cockroaches and other species will survive.
I agree with that. Rather than go through a long pontification, I just refer you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth
And mind you this was published in 1972 and things have just got worse since then and whatever the book predicts has come true.
Yes, there’s no lack of books on the subject — no need to pontificate. The Population Bomb was the one that got my attention in 1968.
When Mao came to power in China, he “discovered” that the reason that rice/wheat/millet stocks were not paying their way i.e. bad years saw less taxes. So he went and discovered it was the “blasted sparrows” eating their way through the foodstuffs.
SO WHAT he do? He paid little children to drive away the sparrows, a dead sparrow tax and so forth… children could be seen waving the sparrows away from the food, and Mao was so pleased! It worked hardly any sparrow were anywhere…
WHAT HE DIDN’T know was that the sparrows ate very little of the crops rather they ate the insects. The same INSECTS that in turn caused China to face a huge famine – not by bad weather but by lack of insect-eating birds!
When I was talking to Asians of say in their now 40/50s they said it was a long time before sparrows returned to the country…
What actually happened to less crops related to weather, weather and also the fact that people were leaving the rural areas, fleeing some of the other Maoist policies…
Great story, thank! Unfortunately our birds come from miles around when Andy sows grass, clover and wildflower seeds. A real treat.
Human beings as an “invasive species”? That sounds about right, considering the huge damage humans are now doing to the planet and its wildlife.
Yes. (: