It was like suddenly discovering the face or object
hidden in a maze, a “find Waldo” sort of experience.
Here I was, reading with growing concern and despondency one more
article alerting me to yet another assault on the environment, this
one posed by an “extraordinarily prolific and costly invasive
species” — the quagga mussel. The article “Wish
You Weren’t Here” by Michelle Nijhuis first describes
how an invasive species starts from an initial “hub”
and as the result of pure luck or exceptional tenacity spreads
outward and establishes new territory. The quagga mussel apparently
fulfilled all the requirements and found itself transported from
the Middle East to Arizona’s Lake Mead, where it multiplied
exponentially. Then I came to this sentence by Nijhuis: “The
problems caused by the quagga mussels are intricate and far-flung,
but they all start with sex.” That’s when I spied
Waldo. “Waldo is us,” I exclaimed excitedly to my
husband sitting quietly nearby watching basketball.
“We’re the main character in the
current maze of environmental breakdown. Human
beings are the most successful invasive species
ever!”
Human beings fit Nijhuis’ description
of successful invaders perfectly, invaders who “by dint of
huge numbers and impressive industry can disrupt food webs and,
therefore entire ecosystems.” When Nijhuis makes reference to
“a monstrous, postapocalyptic fauna, a homogenous cast
capable of shredding nature’s diversity,” I am driven
to contemplate the threatened polar bears clinging to melting ice
caps, the small remaining herds of elephants, the gorillas and the
chimpanzees clinging to shrinking islands of forest, the
degradation of the coral reefs, the salmon whose spawning grounds
have been rendered inaccessible by massive dams, not to mention the
poor honeybees worked to death producing massive amounts of honey
for a burgeoning human population.
I think the word
I’m looking for is hubris, i.e. great numbers of human beings
suffer from the notion that we are superior to all other life
forms. The only comfort I find in the situation is the knowledge of
the increasing numbers of informed and concerned human beings who
are engaging in the effort to stem our invasive behavior, be it
ecological OR political.
Jacqueline
Gulick
Paonia, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The enemy is us.
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