Cultural diversity and biodiversity are intimately related. But those who fight for one rarely dialogue with those that fight to preserve the other. Perhaps it all started in high school. The bell rang and you went to a completely different class, with unique textbooks and teachers. Biology class was different from music, language and social studies. It had different assignments, perspectives and teachers. No wonder we have developed into a world where we can focus our lives on one arena without incorporating the other. In today’s human-centric world we are supposed to focus exclusively on cultural diversity and righting the wrongs of the past, not a bad goal at all, but one that cannot be achieved without a tandem look into the perilous condition of our country and worlds’ biodiversity. As the world tumbles off a human created cliff of neglected biodiversity it will take all of us with it, and the already marginalized will suffer first.
This all means that while it may be okay to teach about population limits for animals like geese and deer, it cannot continue to be out of bounds to discuss population limits for people. It is feared it will create a world of even more unequally applied policies. Fair enough, that fear is actually grounded in both history and present-day continuations of deeply ingrained racism. But it is also fair to proclaim that unless we find some way around this politically dicey quagmire we will be strangled by our good intentions. Ironically, stopping these discussions because some may be afraid of unintended consequences is exactly what will cause nature to have very intended ones.
Let’s examine the status of the white tail deer, for example. While we were busy overpopulating the US in the last century ( we’ve added 222 million since 1921) we were also busy creating the deer’s preferred fragmented habitat. We are helping to encourage the deer population because they prefer what is referred to as ‘edge’ habitat. Deer first evolved on the planet between 10-20 million years ago. Due to our increased presence, in the last 100 years, this large mammal increased its population from 1 to 30 million in the continental US. One deer needs about 7 pounds of food a day, on average. You do the math. Instead of needing to provide 2 ½ billion + pounds of the over 600 plants that deer eat a century ago, we now must provide over 75 ½ billion pounds of plants per year. No wonder my most of my tomato plants this year found their way into this ungulate’s digestive tract.
Canada Geese have increased their populations 4-fold in the last century, due to deliberate re-introduction into the US and due to their preference for mowed lawns and golf courses. They are thriving in a world where the endangered species list is gaining more victims. My state of Minnesota now has the second largest population of geese in the lower 48. When I directed a nature center not too far from the Minneapolis International Airport, it was discovered that ‘our’ geese, were now finding their way into plane engines. Not so fun fact, the Minneapolis International Airport is a stone’s throw away from where we once counted 77 goose nests in our 70 acre marsh. A goose reduction program was instituted immediately. Ironically in the ‘70’s geese were brought into my nature center, their wings clipped in an effort to increase their numbers. I will never forget the day, during my tenure there, when one of my favorite walkers came to my office with muddy knees. A goose had knocked her down, she had come too close to a nearby nest. Every effort was made to reduce the population of this human made problem. Egg shaking was tried, but the female’s do not eat while waiting 31 days for their young to hatch and they will starve if they remain unhatched. Netting was also tried. Nothing worked until we were fortunate enough to have coyotes move into the nature center with geese on their menu. I say all of this because we are no different. Humans are subject to the same laws of ecology. The geese were innocent even as they gathered and made the boardwalks greasy with their excrement. They became hated by many, nonetheless, even though we had artificially increased their numbers and then scratched our collective heads when they responded to our efforts with too much success.
Every animal on earth needs three basic things: food, water and shelter. Add energy for humans. Those do not come in unlimited supplies and something always suffers under the weight of too much demand for those limited resources. When populations get out of control it usually means that natural boundaries of curbing growth have been eliminated and food has been increased. Take away the wolf, the deer’s natural predator, and cut down the forests for increased population growth- fueled development and you have a perfect storm for population explosion. Encourage geese by clipping their primary wing feathers and imprinting them on new habitats, in a landscape with few predators and multiple lawns and you get the same.
So why have humans become so numerous in spite of multiple wars and disease? The same rules apply. A human created petri dish where overpopulation thrives is brought about by a confluence of many factors including: religious edicts for large families in order to keep power in the hands of the already mighty, lack of access to birth control, lack of women’s empowerment in patriarchal cultures, and large investments in curing disease and preventing accidents. In individual countries like the US, numbers are increased by unrestricted immigration policies favoring cheap labor and social justice narratives. Math has a role to play here too. When two people have even just two children, in four generations there will be 8 progeny.
We must form a bio-centric world view. It has always been required, for to keep growing in a limited landscape is a death sentence for humans and much of our wild populations too. A human centric world full of hospitals and the worshipping of growth by our economic systems is not human centric in the long run. To promote humans to the exclusion of wildlife to is create misery, suffering and early death for humans.
We see it over and over again. Destroy the forests to build housing and human infrastructure and watch the soil erode away. Starvation follows planting crops in the sand that is left. To place more and more people in denser and denser cities is to ask the water supply to do more than it can. Lake Mead is crying for us to pay attention to the suicidal continuation of growing population in an already water scarce region. Our economic system was set up to keep expanding using natural capital converted to wealth chasing a story with collapse as its only possible ending. These are just a few of endless examples of the need to stay in our ecological lane, just like geese and deer and so many other examples from the wild world.
Geese and deer do not overconsume however, they just consume. They do not own jet skis or private aircraft. Overconsumption is a simply a result of too many of them in a given area. Their higher than normal numbers are almost always due to our failings as the species in charge. We get rid of natural predators and wonder why rabbits are so numerous. My nature center had room for 3 deer, the forest became a wasteland when their numbers grew to 45 in 5 years. No one wanted to do the responsible thing and cull them, but they also wanted the forests to be full of birds and other wildlife. The bad actions of the past only leave us with worse choices today, but they are far better than what nature has in store.
Humans, however, can and do overconsume especially in the developed world. It becomes particularly egregious when our tax laws and poor union regulations help to create billionaires. Private jets, yachts and multiple homes have huge carbon footprints in a world choking on its own fumes.
Remove those billionaires, however and we still have an attack on biodiversity due to our huge out of control numbers. Adding millions of people in the US and billions worldwide in the last 100 years all needing fresh water, a source of food, energy, health care and materials for housing and infrastructure is a demand causing the earth to throw up its hands as if to say, What are you thinking? The conversation seems to always go south and become a discussion about the horrors of attempting any reasonable solution. That is a reflection of focusing solely on cultural diversity.
It is reasonable to require cities to prove they have enough water to support any new development before it is permitted. It is reasonable to first calculate the country’s ability to absorb immigrants without harming existing biodiversity and the quality of life of those already here. It is reasonable to look at the world through a more holistic lens with our specie as only one part of a complex, fragile system.
Nature has a its own chaotic solution to our overpopulated world knocking at our door right now. Out of control wildfires, stronger more devastating hurricanes and lengthening droughts are messages from a planet we have overwhelmed with our numbers and appetites. Business as usual will not work it was never on track to serve us. Biodiversity must be respected and cultivated for cultural diversity to ever get a stronghold in society. Nature is a harsh teacher, but here is its main lesson : There can be no equality on a dead planet.