Such a charge could never be laid at the door of Frank Cocks, Bishop of Shrewsbury from 1970 to 1980, a man who loved life and revelled in its variety and surprises. “Got along without you before I met you, gonna get along without you now,” they sing. Most of them, the microbes, the whales, the insects, the seed plants and the birds are still singing. The tropical forest trees are humming to themselves waiting for us to finish our arrogant logging so they can get back to their business of growth as usual. It’s just the delusion of our culture that we will conquer death.I hear our non-human brethren sniggering. However close humanity itself may be to causing its own extinction, or at best its irrevocable disintegration, most other species will carry on regardless.
But the notion that we can destroy all life, including the bacteria thriving in the water, tanks of nuclear power plants and deep-sea volcanic vents, is ludicrous. Many species, especially those in the four non-animal-kingdoms – plants, fungi, protoctists and bacteria – do not need humans to take care of them. The assertion made by some politicians and propagandists that, by preserving biodiversity, we can somehow preserve the whole planet’s life is just a further example of our big-headed delusion. No evidence exists that we are “chosen”, the unique species for which all the others were made. Nor are we the most important one because we are so numerous, powerful and dangerous. Our tenacious illusion of special dispensation belies our true status as upright, mammalian weeds.In popular culture, the confused idea of Gaia strikes mythological chords. Gaia resonates with our longing for significance in our short Earth-bound lives We have, for centuries, personified nature.
It is unfortunate that Gaia theory has been used for this vaguely spiritual agenda by mystics, and some of the more scientifically-illiterate environmentalists. But the planet is not human, nor does it belong to humans.Now, a new scientific organisation, Gaia: the Society for Research and Education in Earth System Science, is bringing the lessons of global biology to a wider audience. Few of us will ever be able to get the unique perspective provided by seeing the Earth from space, but the Gaia society will help us share the planetary perspective of those who have. The urgency for developing the larger, interconnected perspective facilitated by Gaia has never been more pressing.Despite our very recent appearance on the planet, humanity combines arrogance with increasing material demands, even as we become more numerous Our toughness is a delusion. Have we the intelligence and discipline to vigilantly guard against our tendency to grow without limit? The planet will not permit our consumption of resources and production of wastes to continue to increase.Runaway populations of bacteria, locusts, roaches, mice and even wild flowers always collapse. They choke on their own wastes as crowding and severe shortage ensue. Diseases follow, taking their cue from destructive behaviours and social disintegration.
