Is life delicate, or is it strong?

Indeed life does appear very fragile. Species compete for a niche within an ecosystem – and if one is bumped out by another which is more successful the loser will almost certainly diminish in population and may become extinct.

Yet despite all of the above, we know that during the history of multi-cellular life on earth that there have been at least five massive extinctions. The most recent, well known to most people was during the Cretaceous–Tertiary, 65 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs. However, this was by no means the worst extinction in the history of life on Earth. While the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction killed up to 50 percent of marine genus and 20 percent of vertebrates on land, scientists believe that the Permian-Triassic extinction 250 million years ago wiped out 95 percent of all species on earth.

Some would argue that this history implies that life must be immensely strong to have ‘found a way’ to survive through these extinction events in the past, some unimaginably cataclysmic. Why should life not prevail at this time? To answer this we must recognise a number of factors which are involved. Firstly that the timescales between extinction events are immense – in the orders of hundreds of millions of years. Second, while species have become extinct, overall life continues on. And third, species that do not survive are generally ones who have had a key requirement of their existence removed from their environment. In the case of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, scientists believe that the absence of sunlight after a meteor strike wiped out the dinosaur’s food supply.

So over great periods of time, life itself appears to have great strength - while individual creatures, groups and species, however, are much less resilient. And the human species, having acquired an ability at best poorly developed in others, should make the best use of it’s power to reason and plan out a future. A future that will almost certainly include the many options that maintaining not only a biodiverse agricultural source, but a biodiverse ecology as well.

The alternative? Just one. Join the other species who couldn’t see the end coming.

For more information

Dr. Niles Eldredge - The Sixth Extinction
ActionBioscience.org- article

UN Food and Agriculture Organization
http://www.fao.org/