If Humanity Wins the War

A picture of a man holding a little bird appeared on the screen. "This picture symbolises the inner sense of my speech," Professor Hubert Reeves explained. "The man saves the bird, but the bird can save the man too, because everything is interlinked."

A well-known astrophysicist who is equally passionate about ecology and biodiversity, Professor Reeves began by highlighting the strong connections that he perceives between astronomy and ecology. "Astronomy tells us how we got here, ecology tells us how we can stay here," he pointed out.  All the disciplines can combine to save mankind and this makes the interdisciplinary dialogue absolutely vital.

Reeves appropriated some lines from Woody Allen to make a point, defining civilisations' four stages of development by asking the following: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What are we going to eat tonight? According to the eminent professor is up to astronomy, molecular biology, archaeology and psychology to answer the first two questions - As he put it, we are stardust, the earth is not the centre of the universe, we live in the slums of the galaxy - But only ecology can give humans a reasonable answer to the last two of Woody Allen's questions.

Reeves proposed that there are in essence, two opposing currents of thought about human activity: one extreme view is that our unrestrained development of technology is driving a deterioration of the planet; the other is that there is a growing recognition of the interdependence of all life on earth. Whether one of these current will prevail or whether their forces can be balanced remains to be seen.

"Humankind is by nature a pillaging species, whose influence has evolved to be felt on a planetary scale," explained Dr. Reeves. Wherever we have colonised, major extinctions have followed; we eliminate hundreds of species every year. But this can also be seen as a corollary of having been for so long what we humans often define as a "successful" species. The fact is, we have become so successful as a species, that in one century, as a collective group, humans have already used more than half of the world's oil reserves, laid down over a hundred thousand years, and have destroyed half of the world's forests. "We are now engaged in fighting a war against nature: if we win, we are lost." Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century and this could represent the so-called "sixth mass extinction".

On the other hand, humanity has become more and more aware that this destruction endangers us. It doesn't take a genius to register this awareness, however Nobel-prize winning scientists are in a better position to articulate such sentiments in a way that might be heard and responded to by the whole community. This environmental conscience now influences every level of decision-making, which justifies the cautious optimism of the speaker.

Reeves posed the stark question, "So what if humans disappear? From the astronomer's perspective, we may be a speck in the slums of the gallaxy, but from the human perspective  "We must admit that humans have not only done foolish deeds," joked Dr. Reeves.  Art, science and, most importantly, compassion, make humankind a unique species, with a unique capacity to choose the direction of its future evolution before it is too late to stop its war with the rest of nature.