Gillian Welch sings, "Its a wonder that I'm in this world at all." Right now I couldn't agree with her more. I've spent so much thought on the idea that we humans, we creations of the universe, mountains, rivers, ice, molecules, penguins, cars, science, families, music, love, happiness, sadness (the goes on forever...), are but momentary and mere sparks off a metaphorical fire bigger and hotter than our brains have the capacity to imagine. But who am I to presume the capacity of the human brain?
Its just that life is filled with uncrossable gaps of reasoning. For instance, it is within the best interest of each individual on earth be they a human, a nematode, or an algae, to act first and foremost in his/her/its own best interest. In many cases we species of planet earth have evolved, if you will, with community- or family-minded behaviors that benefit the greater good of our species, and in some cases of other species. So at once we are inextricably bound to do what is best for our selves, and yet each of our selves are irreversibly bound to each other, to other species, and to every rock, particle, tree, and human on earth. The problem, most notably, in the modern world of humans, is that we are unable to see, or have become disconnected with the binding tenets of ecology which presuppose that we do in fact live in a web of life. We are members of this web, and our actions directly affect all other members. In most cases our effects on our brothers and sisters in the great web of life are inperceivable to our distracted modern eye. Technology has and will continue to exacerbate the issues facing humanity. Every piece of technology that has ever been invented by humans since our beginnings have distanced more and more from the laws of nature which most other species live by. By this I mean that humans are able, whether fairly or not, to acquire more resources, to create more resources through the application of technology, than we actually need. Simply observing nature I notice that virtually all resources available are utilized. This is why as the human ability to create resources with technology has increased over time, population has increased to use up those extra resources.
An elegantly stripped penguin skeleton.
All this is to say that we do not use all our resources, and we certainly don't use our resources with mother earth's health in mind. I have no idea what the solution is, I'm not even sure if personal awareness and responsible action will reduce our impact much if at all. As with any venture in life, if we do the best we can, then we've done the best we could.
Last week I was out at Cape Royds with photographer John Weller who is here gathering images above and below water for his project to protect the Ross Sea, potentially the last intact and pristine marine ecosystem. He is about to launch a site complete with his photographs detailing the mission he is on. We were intending to head two miles out from the penguin colony of roughly 10,000 penguins, out on the sea ice, to a 15 foot crack where the Adelies have been feeding on krill for the past week. Unfortunately the ice had thinned too much since John had first been there and we couldn't make it to the crack.
Part of the colony at Cape Royds
This did allow us to hang out with the penguins in the colony all day and all night. Antarctica is a stark place. The small amount of visible life that exists on the surface consists of seals, penguins, and a few birds. There are microorganisms such as nematodes that survive all over the coastal areas though. Yes penguins are remarkably adorable, but the more I hung out with them the more clearly I saw the brutal existence they face on a daily basis. The colony was strewn with half-rotted penguin carcasses, failed eggs, and predatory Skua birds waiting for the precise moment to attack the Adelie's chicks and drag them out of the colony for a kill.
The yearly life cycle of the Adelies begins in the late spring (February) when their chicks have all taken to the water and all the birds move out to the edge of the pack ice where food and light is more plentiful. Then in the late winter, around September, they return to the same colony, with the same mate, to the same nest of rocks, year after year, ad nauseum. Each year they successfully mate, they potentially have two eggs, and if they're lucky, two chicks. If they are really lucky and they've chosen a good spot in the colony, deep inside a group of penguins, then they are less likely to lose a chick to the skuas. Although penguins are very non-territorial when outside the colony, once on their nest they will not move for any reason except to switch places on the eggs or chicks with their mate. All summer long this rotation happens; either male or female will be out on the sea ice headed for the nearest open water feeding grounds. The length of each rotation depends on the proximity of the feeding grounds. Right now a workable open water crack with a nutrient stream is within two miles of the colony, so the Adelies can switch almost daily. The chicks look fat and unwieldy underneath the parents.
Dead seal on the black sand beach at Cape Royds
Skua parents guarding their freshly hatched chick.
In the colony nothing is wasted, any edible biomass is consumed by one organism or another. Penguins will occasionally eat each other or kill each others chicks. The Adelies have a remarkable range of postures they adopt for various purposes: to indicate aggressiveness, fear, relaxation, and even a self-defensive posture they use while sprinting through the colony as other birds peck at them.
John and I, with the help of the scientists who spend the entire season working at Cape Royds, carried hundreds of pounds of gear over the rough volcanic terrain a moderate way to a black sand beach where they'd been able to access the sea ice the week before, it was quite melted out by this point unfortunately.
Barne Glacier in early morning light
John in front of volcanic rocks
Air penguin
Adelie penguin airing out over a sea ice crack
"The Penthouse" at Cape Royds
Mom (or Dad) and chicks
Penguin on a mission
Adelies, chicks, Cape Royds
Adelies heading in from feeding in the ocean
Penguin sex
Parent and chicks
Adelies at a sea ice crack
Adelies return from a feed
Swimming
An Adelie taking air over an open water crack
Granite glacial erratic in the midst of Cape Royds volcanic rocks
My day observing penguins at Royds made me feel even luckier to be alive. The penguins spend nearly every moment during the early life of their chicks doing things to ensure the survival of their offspring. One unlucky moment and a Skua bird will swoop in and drag a chick away where it will be torn apart and eaten. The world of nature is brutal, and the distance we humans are separated from the direct and brutal economy of nature contributes to our misuse of the earth and maltreatment of our plant and animal neighbors. No one is exempt from the distancing effect humanity has played on us. It is up to us though to act with the consciousness of how our actions affect the creatures that share the world with us.
Parent and chicks
John's project is called, "The Last Ocean." There is a movement growing among many of the Antarctica scientists, based on the notion that the Ross Sea is the last pristine marine ecosystem, to keep it pristine. Right now the Ross sea's main threats are New Zealand fishermen and there is action being taken to reduce or remove fishing from this ecosystem. There are few, if any, ecosystems on Earth which have not felt a measurable impact of humans. This movement is perhaps one of the most important environmental movements happening on Earth today.
There is, and will always, be a battle between those who want to extract use from environments, and those who want them to be left alone. There are no clear answers or justifications that make either side unambiguously correct or incorrect. Any battle to preserve an environmental resource is a battle that must be fought forever. The moment a mine is built, a ski area is developed, a species is driven to extinction, an oil pipeline is installed in a pristine land, or an ecosystem begins to show signs of human presence; once any of these battles are lost, they are lost forever. We cannot recreate pristine.
Adelie and Erebus
Being in the colony reminded me that each one of us is connected to every other living and non living thing on earth, in the universe. We are made of the same atoms, and when we die the material that we are made from will go back naturally to be a part of other organisms in the future.
As I write this the air I'm breathing is air that most of you have breathed, or will soon. Gillian was right, it is a wonder that we're in this world at all. Thank you for being on this journey with me.