An alien view

Imagine that you are an alien, on a spaceship, approaching the Earth for the first time.  You are on a friendly, fact-finding mission – an explorer, a scientist or maybe just a tourist.

As you approach the Earth, you see, and it’s a relief, that this is not just another hot rock with a poisonous atmosphere – it’s somewhere very special.

This planet has oceans of water.  Its equator is encircled by rainforests of mighty trees.  Deserts, estuaries, grasslands and rivers cover the surface but you notice that large areas of the planet’s surface appear to be managed and altered – there may be some intelligent and powerful life-form on Earth.

After a little exploration you realise that Earth is crawling with life – viruses, bacteria, algae, flowering plants, molluscs, crustaceans, insects, spiders, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals. 

As a tourist you can’t stay for ever – what memories do you take away from Earth?

First, you think that this is an amazing place – so much life, such diversity, so many beautiful and awe-inspiring life-forms.  It’s a visit you will never forget. Nowhere else have you seen blue whales and redwoods, sparrows and crabs, salmon and toadstools, seaweeds and swifts, cheetahs and primroses.

Second, you notice that the main threats to the other millions of species on Earth come from the actions of one species, the ape that styles itself Homo sapiens.  Its actions have emptied the oceans of whales and fish, chopped down the forests, removed life from the rivers and degraded the soils.  Many species have been driven to extinction before anyone even knew they existed. 

Third, the so-called sapiens has made the planet more difficult to inhabit through its misguided and excessive demands on its resources.  The climate is changing because of the burning of fossil fuels, the oceans are acidifying, the rainforest belt which stores carbon, provides water resources and shelters so many species is now a mere latticework, the productivity of the oceans has been devastated by over-exploitation, soils have lost their fertility through erosion and poor management. 

Like many tourists, you have enjoyed your visit – you are so glad you came.  But that delight in the wonder of the beauty that you experienced is tinged with sadness and worry.  You realise that the Earth had even more beauty just a few years ago and will be still poorer in natural beauty in a few years time. 

How unwise of sapiens to treat the planet this way.  You can see that the lives of future generations of sapiens will be tougher because of the unwitting mistakes of past generations but even more so because of the apparently negligent actions, and lack of action, of the current generation.  A growing population and too little control of the excessive consumption of the ‘richest’ and most ‘knowledgeable’ people on Earth will mean that future generations will suffer the consequences in terms of floods, famine, droughts, storms and wars.  Oh well, that’ll teach sapiens, that's their problem, you might think.

It’s difficult for you to feel that much sorrow for the fate of one species amongst millions of others on one planet in the big scheme of things.  But it seems such a waste.  The Earth is such a wonderful place – why diminish that beauty through ignorance and inactivity when things could be so much better?  As your spaceship heads off to other planets you shudder and think ‘I’m really glad I came, but I won’t be back – I’m too worried by what I might find.".

This blog is based on a talk I gave on Thursday at the launch of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and to an audience which included Her Imperial Highness Princess Takomado of Japan (President of BirdLife International), Achim Steiner (Executive Director of UNEP ), Russ Mittermeier (President, Conservation International) and Professor Alison Richard (Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University) and a host of academics and NGO partners.

Postscript:  Douglas Adams, like me a Cambridge graduate, like me a lover of the beauty of the Earth’s natural wonders, once wrote "If life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.".  I see what he means, but I hope he’d (like the flight of fancy in the blog above and) agree that these days, “If life is going to survive on Earth, then the one thing that Homo sapiens needs to develop, and quickly, is a sense of proportion.”.  The GDP of Austria and the £/$ exchange rate are both examples of the economic froth on top of the reality of the carbon cycle, photosynthesis, respiration, food webs, excretion, reproduction, birdsong, the buzz of insects, the flash of a butterfly’s wing and the smell of flowers.