The Richness of Life

"The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.  His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

After re-reading this entry, I feel obligated to forewarn: it gets happier as you read on.  

Uniformity, homogeneity, and hyper-consumerism have swallowed modernity.  We fail to even see the natural world in the midst of human-driven conformity; we see it only in terms how we can modify it to suit our needs. It’s interesting that we struggle as a species to work together anymore, but we successfully collaborate to annihilate the planet.  We have truly become self-destructive.

I think Rob Jackson, author of The Earth Remains Forever, uses a double-entendre in the title of his second chapter, “The Richness of Life,” that clearly illustrates our skewed priorities. In this chapter title, Jackson uses the word “richness” not only to highlight the value of biodiversity (which is, essentially, the theme of this chapter), but also to suggest the absurd dichotomy of human desire: instead of valuing richness of life – as in biodiversity, and the celebration of all biotic organisms – we often value richness only in terms of monetary success, or in terms of superficial gain.  Thus, he implicitly scorns us right from the start.  Jackson procedes to make a case for biodiversity in this second chapter.  He answers the question, how are we currently treating the diverse species that populate the earth? And why should we care?  Unfortunately, we fail to preserve diverse species because we deteriorate the planet’s ecosystems – no surprise there.  But if it’s no surprise by now, then why don’t we care?  In our apathy, we will perish.  Perhaps we already have.  We must discover the interrelatedness of all life and start preserving with our hearts instead of wasting with – or without, I suppose – our minds.  

Our current lack of biodiversity reflects our lack of social, economic, and linguistic diversity.  Jackson writes, “The world is becoming an increasingly homogenous place” (34).  To capitalize on our constant drive toward “sameness,” consider the American fast food industry.  The key word behind the creation of the fast food industry is “uniformity.”  Almost every aspect of American life has now been franchised or chained, a trend which more or less began with the fast food industry.  Fast food is a culture for Americans – one whose fundamental appeal is cheapness and convenience.  

We need not argue about the dangers of homogeneity if we simply recall the Irish potato famine, a horrible fungus-induced major crop devastation that destroyed over a million people in Ireland in the nineteenth-century.  Abundant, diverse life must exist.  If not because all biotic organisms serve a purpose and should be regarded as uniquely beautiful and sacred, then because we indubitably require most organisms to survive.  Jackson argues, “Plants, animals, and microbes are immensely useful to us – we are here because they are.  They provide the oxygen that we breathe and the food that we eat. They clothe us and shade us” (54). 

Moreover, these organisms help us discover medicines and other innovations which we would be at great “pains” to live without, like Aspirin and Penicillin.  Aside from valuing biodiversity from a utilitarian perspective, however (and I do realize this may be approaching an area of discomfort or disagreement for some readers), I'd like to make an ethical argument for biodiversity.  Why do we allow our intellect and ingenuity justify our constant subjugation of other creatures on Earth? Why are we the “chosen” ones?  If our intellects and our ability to plan and design projects enable us to do anything better than other species, it should enable us to better preserve the natural world, rather than to do more damage to it than is necessary.  If we cannot concede that the life of every creature inhabiting the Earth is just as important as a human life, we must at least acknowledge the sacrosanctity – the sacredness – of each living organism.  All species have value, else they should not have been created in the first place.  We cannot consider ourselves superior to the natural world.  We are not separate from nature; we must allow it to flow, unimpeded, through our hearts. 

To solve the issue of biotic homogeneity or scarce diversity, we should learn to use our resources sustainably and protect the ecosystem that species inhabit, rather than trying to save one particular species from going extinct. If we were to zoom in to what this may look like on a personal level, preserving ecosystems could just mean living as if we already have everything we need.   It could mean taking only what we need from nature and leaving the rest alone.  It could mean living simply.  

I recently read a tremendous article about a community who was fed up with the abuse that nature must perpetually endure with silent agony. “Miracle at Adobe Creek” is an inspiring tale about a teacher who, with his students, innovates a practical solution for the devastating disappearance of certain aquatic species in their area.  Littered and dying, a trout stream near their school was a casualty of modern life, so Tom Fuller and his students decide to resurrect it.  They make it an on-going project; Fuller turns it into a learning experience.  Furrer claims he remembers a time when the stream was beautiful and springing with life.  Now, he says humans have sucked the life out of the river in order to live the way they want to live.  However, instead of allowing the hopelessness to continue, he encourages his students to come together to take practical action and actually heal something. This is an excellent example of one community who took initiative to reconstruct an ecosystem that had deteriorated as a result of human action. We can all, at the very minimum, aim to protect and preserve our immediate environments.  

Let us launch away from “sameness.”  Can we look inside of ourselves, rediscover who we are, and ask ourselves why we make everything else in our lives a priority except the only thing that really matters – nurturing nature so that we can, in turn, be nurtured by her?  Let us remove the chains we’ve created for ourselves within society, let us break free and reconnect with the natural world.  Let us live simply, love deeply, and seek peace.  

Let us experience the true, unadulterated, “richness” of life.