The three-legged table
I wonder what happens when you kick a leg away.
Well, the plants and trees can support a certain number of deer who, in turn, can support a certain number of wolves. Nature will quite happily let cute furry animals or bloody-mawed wolves die in large numbers when things get out of balance. Unfortunately, humans can easily cause this system to become unbalanced because what we might want from it doesn’t fit with the system.
Blame the people who invented agriculture; who said to themselves, “Let the food come to us in an orderly fashion. Why should we always be running around after it?” And with agriculture came civilisation. Actually, local councils probably came next, then bureaucracy, planning permission, application forms, meetings, and eventually approval for building work. Only then was civilisation allowed to happen. The first post that the first people to live in a house probably got was a bill for Council Tax.
One day a pack of wolves happens to run into the sights of a group of trigger-happy American hunters who gun the animals down. They assume that fewer wolves will mean more deer for the hunters.
But in due course, all the hunters find is the flora denuded of all its leaves, and the bones of the deer who have eaten themselves into starvation.
Obviously this is a story about the balance of nature. Without natural predators to check their numbers, the deer population will expand and overgraze the available food supply. In other words, if you kick away one of the legs of a three-legged table, it’s going to fall over. The question the book poses is how killing the deer is conservation.
But in due course, all the hunters find is the flora denuded of all its leaves, and the bones of the deer who have eaten themselves into starvation.
Obviously this is a story about the balance of nature. Without natural predators to check their numbers, the deer population will expand and overgraze the available food supply. In other words, if you kick away one of the legs of a three-legged table, it’s going to fall over. The question the book poses is how killing the deer is conservation.
Well, the plants and trees can support a certain number of deer who, in turn, can support a certain number of wolves. Nature will quite happily let cute furry animals or bloody-mawed wolves die in large numbers when things get out of balance. Unfortunately, humans can easily cause this system to become unbalanced because what we might want from it doesn’t fit with the system.
Blame the people who invented agriculture; who said to themselves, “Let the food come to us in an orderly fashion. Why should we always be running around after it?” And with agriculture came civilisation. Actually, local councils probably came next, then bureaucracy, planning permission, application forms, meetings, and eventually approval for building work. Only then was civilisation allowed to happen. The first post that the first people to live in a house probably got was a bill for Council Tax.
Tomorrow’s dilemma is about radical tree-huggers fighting the good fight. Would it be wrong for a wolf to eat one of them?
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