Welcome to this conversation

Our Place - Episode 3: Habitat & Biodiversity—A Loss As we human beings have moved forward in numbers and footprint other things have been pushed aside. The loss of habitat and biodiversity is turning out to be a loss for us. We are discovering every landscape on this planet holds the weaving of the fabric together, not just our favorites. The same is true of the forms of life. They matter whether we like, understand, or are even aware of them. Their loss is ours. Our real place in nature shows us how their win will be ours too. Let’s find it!

Episode 3: Habitat & Biodiversity—A Loss

“Welcome to Our Place. Welcome to Planet Earth. It’s the only place we’ve got. And this place of ours is in trouble, It’s time for us to learn our place within this place of ours.”

A recap of the last two weeks:

• The earth is Finite (limited, exhaustible) and the earth is One (connected, a whole).

• We human beings have made ourselves be apart from the rest of the world, rather than part of all things.

• To change the way we relate to the rest of the world (Action) we need to not only know more about the world and what is wrong (Awareness) but we need to care (Appreciation). 

• And this change is not only essential, it is possible. And the new relationship we can have is not only acceptable, it will be preferable.

Today we are talking about the dramatic losses our planet is experiencing in habitats and biodiversity.

Something to consider: What do you know about the disappearance of different habitats and species? What changes have you noticed in your own lifetime?

Why is this dramatic loss of habitat and biodiversity a problem?

• There is too much awe and wonder in the diversity of land and life to lose any of it.

• The many species of plants, animals & insects have their own lives and deserve a place here.

• We need them. Biodiversity is a necessary tool in keeping the ecosystem we rely on healthy.

Greg shared about a video of a dolphin that sought help from a diver to free it from a fishing hook and line. It was a parable of our human responsibility for many of the problems in our ecosystem, and for fixing them. And for the fact that an intimate, part-of-each-other’s-lives type of relation with the rest of the world is available to us if we seek it. LINK TO VIDEO.

The problem of our human relationship with the rest of the world is that we have transcended the restrictions and inherent limits other beings face in nature by using our intelligence to manipulate the environment to our favor.

Something to consider: The real question today is not about how smart we are; we are smart enough to outsmart evolution and natural processes. The question is, are we wise enough to not do it? What do you think?

Using our wisdom to inform our knowledge and temper our instincts is not a new idea. Much of the wisdom we need has been around for a long, long time. Genesis chapter 3 (LINK) is an example of it. So is the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. 

Robin Wall Kimmerer also talks about this ancient wisdom and its relationship with our present lives as a botanist and an indigenous person.   cf. Braiding Sweetgrass, page 177.

“Anything we can’t do forever is, by definition, not sustainable.” David Attenborough

One truth of this world is that an individual part of an ecosystem can only thrive if the rest of the ecosystem thrives. That is a rule of nature that we cannot avoid. We cannot continue to thrive at the expense of the rest.

How do we go forward, heal the ecosystem that we rely on, and restore the habitats and biodiversity of our planet?

1. By realizing that it can be done!

2. By getting outside! (Richard Louv, The Last Child in the Woods.)

3. By blurring the difference between the wild and the tame.

4. By changing what’s on your dinner table. 

Something to consider: How do you relate to these strategies for healing our planet? What was a point from one of them that resonated with you? What is one you could begin to move forward on?

The Challenge: “There are at least 350,000 species of beetles living in Our Place with us. That’s a lot! It means that the world likes variety. And not just some variety, but wild, unimaginable, breathtaking variety. If you want to talk about God this way, it means that God likes that kind of variety. And it means that something in how the world works relies on the same kind of grand, mind-bending variety. Yet, we human beings are turning it into a world of homogeneity.” 

The Hope: “Our planet is powerful and dynamic. Life is resilient and endlessly creative. And given space, species and habitats rebound shockingly quickly… And we human beings aren’t only smart and stubborn, we are also capable of wisdom and have an enormous capacity for love. Over and over again, Jesus said, “Love one another.” It is an appropriate thing to say in so many situations because it is so often exactly what is needed.

Love this world we have been given to share in.
If we take care of it, our place, it shall take care of us.”

Homework for you! As the snow releases the leaf litter buried in it, get down in it. Close up. Look for all the critters hiding there. Take pictures or make sketches. Who are they, what are they doing? What is their role in the biosphere that is your yard?

More Resources…

Group Discussion Guide: Click HERE.