I've been listening to Tapestries of Life: Uncovering the Lifesaving Secrets of the Natural World
by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson. Now, I really like this Anne woman - she's great - but the book is pissing me off.
She's sort of arguing that we should preserve biodiversity because of all the potential medicines and benefits we humans may yet discover. I don't think this is entirely how she feels. Maybe it is. But it's like the only reason for saving other species is because they might benefit us. Pollinating, preventing flooding, sequestering carbon, providing medicines, looking beautiful.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
We don't need more medicines. We need to accept that we are going to die at some point, get over it, and not use up more finite resources being alive for so damn long. I sound callous, right? Isn't my dad in hospital? Yes, he is. Of course I don't want him to die. He's my dad. I love him. But, in the bigger picture, who says he should live forever? At what cost?
Nor do my rants about population mean that I think people in developing countries should be sacrificed to reduce numbers. Their carbon footprint is about a fiftieth of mine. Nor do I think they should not be allowed to have a better quality of life. No. I do think theirs should be better. The three billion who don't have handy access to potable water. What I think is that our carbon footprint should shrink, dramatically, and that we should accept death. WE DIE. We suffer. We are mortal. Pain is not evil. Evil is some people profiting from the oppression of others and the earth.
Here's a thing. Horseshoe crabs. They're all endangered now. Why? Well, part is habitat destruction. But much is because we catch them to suck their blood to test whether our medicines - to extend our lives - are free from bacteria. Because their blue blood conveniently clots when it meets bacteria. In the US, they release them again after pumping their blood. Not that they all survive. In Asia, they eat them. But even in America, the shortage of horseshoe crab eggs is a contributory factor in the decline in numbers of red knots. These migrating birds relied on that protein to fuel their migration. Horseshoe crabs made it through the Great Dying. The third mass extinction, when 90% of life disappeared, 250 million years ago. They may not make it beyond the Anthropocene.
Gastric-brooding frogs became extinct before we could use their secrets to save human lives by managing gastric juices and organ function. What a shame. For us??? FFS. One of the reason for the extinction of these frogs - and, in fact, the endangered status of 40% of amphibians - is related to chytrid fungus disease which in part is spread by the use of frogs as pregnancy tests and these lab amphibians escaping around the world, carrying the disease, and contaminating frogs all around the globe.
Pacific yews are endangered in part because so many were felled for a cancer medicine. I think 3,000 trees for one kilo of the medicine. Yay, it saved (extended?) millions of human lives. Now they can make it in labs. I think my dear friend Linda took it.
Anne revels in the life-saving medicines - and says we must preserve species to find more. She also points out that now we can manufacture the compounds in the lab without needing to destroy all the species that possess them. But all this money all the time going into us! All the time! To make us live longer. To ensure more of us. When the biggest problem is that there are too many of us!
Then she is scathing about the belief in the healing properties of rhino horns and pangolin shells. So you destroy a species because you believe you'll live longer and better rather than because science tells you you'll live longer and better. So what? For the unfortunate species, it doesn't matter. They die either way. And at least rhino horns don't really mean more of us live.
Besides which, Chinese medicine may be one of the horrendous reasons for species loss - but so is ego. Of the thousands of wild animals killed or trapped for the illegal market, which, by the way, is worth more than the DRUG market, many are for pets. In Western countries. There are more pet tigers in America, maybe even just in Texas, than there are tigers in the wild. Reptiles are caught in their thousands and most die. Plus many thousands of birds, primates and more. Not medicine. Fun.
We kill for kindness. Kindness to ourselves, always ourselves.
I end with a perfect haiku from CC....
human-free zones
don't exist --
other lives beleaguered
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