The relationship between animals, the climate and ecosystems has long been known. This week French scientists (Sauterey, Charnay et al. 2022) said that microbial life on Mars may have created an ice ageA period of reduction in Earth’s temperature of between about 4–7 degrees that resulted in the rapid expansion of ice sheets and glaciation of much of the Earth’s surface. More and wiped itself out. Life on Mars didn’t make it to the animal stage though. On Earth, animals (not plants) became the reason ecosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More could exist. It was the rise of animal life that ultimately stabilised Earth’s environment which eventually led to humans.
‘NASA has reported as realistic the prospect of eventually terraforming Mars using a giant magnetosphere to deflect solar radiation, creating a thicker atmosphere and liquid surface water within a lifetime.271 Even if this is plausible, the climate chaos(Of energy and ecosystems). Ecosystems are thermodynamically driven. Disorder occurs when energy dissipates and becomes more chaotic. For example, the release of hot air into the atmosphere results in that energy is freer to disperse (maximum entropy). The opposite is true when energy is locked into biological processes, when it is stored inside molecules (minimum entropy). Stability in ecosystems occurs More and absence of sustainable ecosystems and animal life for millions of years would make it virtually impossible to engineer the kind of stability needed to support an economically healthy human population’.
‘Wildlife in the Balance’ (2022)
It takes a family of animals interacting to create the ‘household’ that is a habitable planet. Humans can’t do this alone. Neither can any group of animals, without all the others.
Animals need each other
The fact that animals collectively need each other to survive is not yet widely acknowledged but it is the key to our own survival. Mars has never been and will never be habitable.
‘I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Everything I had thought was wrong … Everything I had expected to see was wrong.’
William Shatner reflects on his journey to the edge of space in his new book, “Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder – from Variety Magazine.
The only habitable planet is Earth and that’s because it is full of wildlife.
This is the subject I cover in ‘Wildlife in the Balance’. This untold story needs to be known before we can create the change in human values required to safeguard our own future on Earth.
