Did you know that…
During the ice age a dry, frigid grassland known as the mammoth steppe stretched east and north from forested Europe. The largest single habitat on land, it extended from what is now central France to Alaska… Woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, bison, musk ox, giant elk and horse abounded there in a climate far harsher than today’s.
Neither did I until I read Here on Earth by Tim Flannery.
I am a huge fan of Mr Flannery. I think his work is most impressive and his commitment noble.
Flannery’s The Weather Makers concentrated on the science of Climate Change, whereas Here on Earth: An Argument For Hope balances science with an argument for hope (as title suggests) in the light of the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 and the worlds collective failure to move forward.
I found this book most stimulating and was reminded that if people like Mr Flannery have not given up hope then neither should I. Humans are capable of immense love and beauty, we also have many of the solutions to our problems, so all we need is to act decisively and urgently. Surely, this is not impossible.
After all, if Attine ants are able to sustain an agricultural system more sophisticated than humans…
The fungus the ants grow, for example, has been cultivated by them for so long that it now exists nowhere else. The same is true of specialised bacteria that produce fungicides to destroy competing fungi and which are found only in special pocket-shaped crevices on the ant’s bodies. In terms of agricultural sustainability, the ants provide an enviable model.
Then anything is possible.

