It started sixty thousand years ago.
A small tribe of humans began to work together to hunt, knapping flint into arrowheads. Over time, their numbers increased. These were your ancestors.
Tribes moved out of Africa and new generations went in search of herds to follow. This is how the slow expansion of humans began. Over the millennia they colonised every continent, becoming the world’s dominant species.
Your genetic code adapted down those generations. Through natural selection, certain traits survived, others did not, creating subtle shifts in the gene pool, making you the person you are today.
But over and over again, your ancestors’ success caused problems. As populations rose, damage to local environments increased. Too many trees were felled, depleting the soils. Nature’s balance was disrupted and creatures seemingly infinite in number were driven to extinction.
Over and over again, cultures collapsed as they exhausted their resources. Each failure was all too predictable, all too preventable, a simple repetition of what went before; yet your ancestors did not learn, did not choose to remember.
Humanity’s growth continues. The world’s population increases by two hundred and thirty five thousand every day. You are one of almost seven billion people alive, a number set to rise to over nine billion by 2050.
Friday, 28 May 2010
Friday, 14 May 2010
The pleistocene extinctions
With flint-headed weapons, your strong hunters could bring down any animal, no matter how big. Your women and elders protected your young, tending fire pits for cooking. You used fire to open up the landscape too, making it easier to track big prey.
Your success made your numbers grow. You followed the herds. Where they rested, your shamans painted mystical scenes deep in caves, idolising their energy and power.
But your hunting prowess made their numbers dwindle. As food grew scarce you set out to find new lands. Your people gradually moved out of Africa, hunting the creatures they found on the way. These animals had not evolved with humans. Some found it impossible to adapt to altered ecosystems, others were already stressed by a changing climate.
When your tribes crossed to Australia fifty thousand years ago, fifteen of the sixteen large mammal species on the island were wiped out.
Just over ten thousand years ago, your descendents arrived in North America, driving fifteen large mammal species to extinction within one and a half thousand years.
As humanity expanded to fill every continent on the planet, the impact of your tribes’ combined with a warming climate to wipe out the majority of creatures heavier than forty kilograms.
Your success made your numbers grow. You followed the herds. Where they rested, your shamans painted mystical scenes deep in caves, idolising their energy and power.
But your hunting prowess made their numbers dwindle. As food grew scarce you set out to find new lands. Your people gradually moved out of Africa, hunting the creatures they found on the way. These animals had not evolved with humans. Some found it impossible to adapt to altered ecosystems, others were already stressed by a changing climate.
When your tribes crossed to Australia fifty thousand years ago, fifteen of the sixteen large mammal species on the island were wiped out.
Just over ten thousand years ago, your descendents arrived in North America, driving fifteen large mammal species to extinction within one and a half thousand years.
As humanity expanded to fill every continent on the planet, the impact of your tribes’ combined with a warming climate to wipe out the majority of creatures heavier than forty kilograms.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
The Florida Everglades
They began to drain the Everglades in 1882 when you were seven and Miami was a town of five thousand, with streets of dust.
Your father’s passionate opposition did no good. Over two thousand kilometres of canals were created. Advertisers sold a dream of a tropical paradise to New Yorkers, stimulating a land boom. More and more people arrived. Sugar cane was planted, and animals hunted in the marshes; in one trip, a hunter killed two hundred and fifty alligators and one hundred and seventy otters. Wading birds were prized for their feathers, with five million killed in 1886 alone.
The disruption of the watershed caused sea water to fill the marshes. Lake Okeechobee lost oxygen, killing most of its wildlife, including ninety percent of its wading birds. And as the land dried out, it subsided by a third of a metre a year, causing problems to housing; it was not the paradise people were promised.
Your book “Everglades: River of Grass” finally made people see Florida’s marshland for what it was; a fragile ecosystem to be protected. You were seventy nine, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and tiny and frail, but you instigated the most expensive environmental repair attempt in history on a stretch of land now home to five million people.
Your father’s passionate opposition did no good. Over two thousand kilometres of canals were created. Advertisers sold a dream of a tropical paradise to New Yorkers, stimulating a land boom. More and more people arrived. Sugar cane was planted, and animals hunted in the marshes; in one trip, a hunter killed two hundred and fifty alligators and one hundred and seventy otters. Wading birds were prized for their feathers, with five million killed in 1886 alone.
The disruption of the watershed caused sea water to fill the marshes. Lake Okeechobee lost oxygen, killing most of its wildlife, including ninety percent of its wading birds. And as the land dried out, it subsided by a third of a metre a year, causing problems to housing; it was not the paradise people were promised.
Your book “Everglades: River of Grass” finally made people see Florida’s marshland for what it was; a fragile ecosystem to be protected. You were seventy nine, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and tiny and frail, but you instigated the most expensive environmental repair attempt in history on a stretch of land now home to five million people.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Minimata
Today, 4 July 1970, they call you as a witness. You wonder if this new generation will ever understand the struggle it was creating the prosperous Japan that is theirs; the sacrifice it took.
But what happened at Minimata sits heavily on your soul. From your hospital bed, you speak the truth after all these years. You are dying of cancer, the Chisso Company can do nothing to you now.
You tell the court how Japan needed to industrialise. With such little farmable land and a growing population, it had to increase productivity. The Chisso Factory opened in 1908 making fertilisers, bringing prosperity to Minimata. When acetaldehyde production began no one knew the toxic waste would slowly build up in the bay. After you became director of the factory hospital, fish began to die, cats went mad. You analysed them and found mercury poisoning, but the factory forced your silence.
Soon people became ill, you witnessed terrible suffering; thousands died. The community shunned victims, fearing for their jobs. The Chisso Company opened a purification plant, though they knew it would not work against mercury.
For twelve years, Hajime Hosokawa, you watched the agony unfold, until today. Your testimony will swing the case, triggering the largest settlements in Japanese history.
But what happened at Minimata sits heavily on your soul. From your hospital bed, you speak the truth after all these years. You are dying of cancer, the Chisso Company can do nothing to you now.
You tell the court how Japan needed to industrialise. With such little farmable land and a growing population, it had to increase productivity. The Chisso Factory opened in 1908 making fertilisers, bringing prosperity to Minimata. When acetaldehyde production began no one knew the toxic waste would slowly build up in the bay. After you became director of the factory hospital, fish began to die, cats went mad. You analysed them and found mercury poisoning, but the factory forced your silence.
Soon people became ill, you witnessed terrible suffering; thousands died. The community shunned victims, fearing for their jobs. The Chisso Company opened a purification plant, though they knew it would not work against mercury.
For twelve years, Hajime Hosokawa, you watched the agony unfold, until today. Your testimony will swing the case, triggering the largest settlements in Japanese history.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
