Coming collapse?

By Alex Gratzek – Originally published in The Korea Times

All around the globe, the presence of man is being increasingly felt throughout the environment. With the rise of modern technology, man’s dominion over nature and the destruction wrought is becoming even more thorough.

Even in olden times, before the rise of modern technology, man was showing his dominion over animals and the environment. It surely can’t be a coincidence that the arrival of modern man around the globe was the harbinger of death for megafauna.

Oceanic megafauna were largely spared this apocalypse because man’s technology didn’t allow for long-term oceanic voyages. When the ability to safely navigate the oceans came about, populations of whales were decimated and they are still well below historical numbers. The threat to whales only subsided with the switch away from whale oil to other alternatives.

Today, whales and other oceans animals are suffering from the hubris of man as plastics are finding their way into the food chain and the stomachs of sea animals such as whales, dolphins and turtles. This likely played a role in their deaths. If current trends continue, it is expected that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by weight.

This destruction to oceanic life is extending down the food chain. Seabirds and sea life such as salmon, mussels, eels etc. have been found to suffer from a Vitamin B1 deficiency in North America and Europe which is necessary for animals to live and reproduce. Although the cause has yet to be determined, I would certainly not bet against man being the culprit.

Now this decimation of animals is extending down the food web. Reports in America and Europe have both made note of the collapse of insect populations when compared to the recent past. A German study discovered a dramatic 75 percent drop amongst winged insect populations by weight in nature reserves in just 27 years while America has seen a 90 percent decline in monarch butterfly populations.

This decline is likely due to the increased use of pesticides, common in intensive farming, and is having affects further up the food chains. Last year, an article in The Guardian reported that a study in France showed that bird populations in farming areas had declined by an average of a third with some species suffering even more dramatic declines.

Birds which reside in wooded areas or urban areas were not affected probably because their homes were far removed from areas in which pesticide are used and their food source of insects remains abundant.

Growing up in the 1990s, I would always watch old movies from the 70s and 80s on TV. A common trope in these older movies was the sheer number of dead bugs which would pile up on windshields. When I started driving in the early 2000s, a bug splattering on my window was a rare event and one I would remember for days because it was so uncommon.

One may say, good riddance to insects of all kinds, who needs insects anyway? Insects are at the extreme low end of the food chain but they play an important role. They serve as the foundation for many food chains, serving as a source of food for birds and their decline is being felt throughout the environment.

The Earth is a finely tuned machine which achieved equilibrium over millions of years as species co-evolved together in their respective environments achieving a balance. Previously, man had only replaced the megafauna of the world allowing for the continuation of food webs albeit in different shapes.

Mankind has upended this equilibrium in the blink of an eye with a form of globalization that has introduced Burmese pythons to the Americas, Hippos to South America and countless more examples which harms the naturally occurring ecosystems of the world.

Not only this, but the technological advancements of man are playing havoc with the environment. Modern agriculture as practiced in America and Western Europe is a very intensive affair which sees large amounts of land dedicated to the growing of a single crop.

Monoculture farming produces larger yields but at the expense of a healthy environment. In monoculture farms or tree plantations, the diversity of birds, insects and animals is dramatically lower than in a natural occurring environment with a plethora of plant life.

Some naysayers may say I am being overly pessimistic and man surely can’t have such an impact. Take a look back at history. The Mongol conquests in the 1200s resulted in so many deaths that lands which had previously been under cultivation returned to a natural state sucking carbon out of the area resulting in a period of global cooling.

If a small number of nomads can affect the globe using bows and arrows as their means of destruction, then modern man with all his technology can surely have a larger impact.

Modern farming techniques leach the soil and water with pesticides which may ensure a bounty of food supplies now but at what cost? Tainted water and soil? In time, this desolation will move up the food chain affecting man. Insecticides kill harmful insects but it also makes its way into our food supply affecting our health.

Man has proven his dominion over the air, the sea, land, plants and animals with his technological prowess. Man needs to be concerned with our own survival as we destroy the foundation on which we have built our society.

An important question of our time is whether man can find a way to live in harmony with nature or if humankind will continue on the path of altering the Earth for our own short-term benefit at the expense of our long-term wellbeing.