Humans Have the Ability to Adapt to Diminishment.
This served us well in prehistoric times. We moved on, found greener pastures. Eco-systems recovered and we caused minimal damage relative to today’s world of eight billion of us.
Today however adapting to diminishment llows us to forget the damage we do, the species we lost and the eco-systems destroyed.
People my age remember that there were more fish in the sea, more birds in the sky and more insects in the air and on the ground.
We remember having to clean dead bugs from our car windshields even after a short drive. It was a regular routine thing to do every time we went to the gas station or returned home.
Many considered it a nuisance and some maybe thankful that this is a chore we no longer need to do.
But it is an ominous warning of a diminishing ecology, the diminishment of diversity and the diminishment of interdependence of species.
We are killing beneficial microbes, worms, fungi and insects in our soil, killing off phytoplankton and zooplankton and diminishing the fishes in the sea.
As one species of fish becomes commercially extinct, we move onto another. As a child in Eastern Canada, hardly anyone ate mussels. They were considered dirty compared to oysters, clams and scallops. Now this is the only mollusk served at a reasonable price in restuarants. No one ate pollack, it was tasteless but now we add a chemical smell, a chemical taste and a chemical dye and market it as crab or surimi.
Where did all the insects go!
According to studies 40% of all insect species are in decline and could disappear in the coming decades. Many factors are in the mix, including the usual suspects: human-caused habitat changes, deforestation and conversion of natural habitats for agriculture, chemicals such as herbicides, fungicides and pesticides. Insecticides, and neonicotinoids have been implicated in the global decline of bees.
A world without bees and worms means diminishment of food production. Insects, The essential pollinators are in serious decline.
I yearn for the time when we had to clean our windshields, when fireflies, butterflies, crickets and beetles were common.
yes, this is sad and scary