New Life - On Its Way Out

May 21st, 2007

By Rowan Wolf

(Image courtesy of James Dragesic of the Australian Gvt. Antarctic Division)

It was reported that scientists have found more than 700 new species of sea life in the Antarctic. Hailed as a “treasure trove,” the species were found by the Andeep (Antarctic benthic deep-sea biodiversity) project in waters thought “too hostile” to contain life.

It always makes me sad when “new species” are discovered because it generally means that they will be gone soon. It means that technological, consuming and polluting society has crashed its way into an area that had remained remote an unexploited.

It seems that it is always because the forest has been destroyed to the “deep forest,” or a previously inaccessible area has been made accessible. The species - and sometimes people - who have lived quite fine for millennia, are suddenly exposed and then destroyed.

With the sea life deep in the Antarctic, multiple threats now present themselves: the threat of being discovered and sampled and studied and - if there is a commercial possibility - exploited; the threat of global warming. Both threats are the consequences of a societal paradigm that frames itself as separate from the world and the inhabitants of it.

We need to come to an awareness, that we are not part of a society that values life - only one that values its own life. We need the awareness that we are an “anti-biotic” society - against life. If the world, including this society, are going to survive, then that consciousness needs to change dramatically. Culturally and institutionally we need to become “pro-biotic” - pro-life - and that is all life, not just our own. Pro-biotic does not mean moving to a “sustainability” platform that trades development against destruction. We are past any hope of “sustainable development” in that context. We need to repair before we can even consider sustainability.

We see the resistance to repairing the damage in the various approaches to addressing carbon emissions and global warming. The capitalist approach is “carbon trading.” Buying carbon stock. Spreading out emissions, or sequestering emissions underground or on the ocean floor. The scientists tell us clearly that we need an immediate 80% reduction in carbon emissions. That is not carbon “neutral.” That is reduce. It doesn’t mean stopping where we are. Further, that even with an 80% reduction, that so much damage is done that no one can predict the recovery time.

Meanwhile, there are 700 newly “discovered” species under the rapidly melting Antarctic ice, and the race is on to catalogue them before they go extinct.

Links of Interest
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

intute: science, engineering & technology

U.S. Antarctic Program

Entry Filed under: NEGATIVE SPACE, ONE PLANET