When many of us think about preserving nature we think of wildlife programs on the television, of cuddly lovable furry animals such as the chimpanzee, the koala bear, panda bears and many others. We also think of the big game of Africa, and the shimmering beauty and amazing diversity of the sea life of our coral reefs. In fact, the understandable popularity of these animals has been such that until recently nature conservation bodies were formed which concentrated almost wholly on such examples of mother nature's most lovable and most amazing creatures, with international bodies like the highly respected World Wildlife Fund fighting to preserve the habitat of these wonderful creatures.
To lose the elephant, for example, or the tiger, or lion to extinction would be for most people an unthinkable loss to mankind our grandchildren and all the generations that follow them, and yet it could happen, and the day that it might happen is closer than most of us think.
Nobody can be sure how many individuals of any particular species are needed to maintain a healthy gene pool, and once there are no longer any animals of a species living in the wild then so much of their behavior is lost. So much of the personality of any wild animal disappears when they are not living in their natural habitat. They are so much a part of the habitat that they have evolved to live in over the untold millennia, that without it man will not fully be able appreciate the animal. Nor, can the individual animal ever fulfill their function or be at one with his environment in the way they would in the wild, no matter how well cared for by their keepers.
So let us not think that zoos will save earth's rare wild creatures over the next hundreds of years. They will do their best, and they will provide specimens for us to see these animals, but we should not see zoos as preventing the loss of wildlife to extinction over many hundreds of years. Zoos are best seen as educational resources that bring city dwellers to understand enough about these wonderful creatures, to take delight in them, and then to care about them and nature generally.
It is only by caring for all of nature, and preserving nature, that mankind will be able to see his place within it, and its importance to man's very existence. When he does, all species will be much better respected and as a result protected, than they are now.
Man has been, and still is experiencing a unique age, an age which has seen the evolution of ever more advanced technologies, which has been powered by the availability of almost limitless cheap fuel. Before the industrial revolution man could only use the earth's current solar energy, the sunshine that shone that year on the crop he ate, and by photosynthesis enabled the plants to grow. The energy he used was from the food they ate (the crop grown that year without chemical fertilizers), and his power came from muscle power - his own, and that of the animals he harnessed to work for him.
The use of fossil fuels changed that, and they changed the way we thought of the world. Man saw himself as apart from and independent of nature, and indeed, we have been. However, there are two reasons why all that will soon change, and they are climate change, and the peaking in the production of oil.
Now, as we know, just what the causes and future effects of climate change might be, are open to wide debate, and we are not about to tackle those in this short article. So let us for a minute consider the peaking in the production of oil alone.
Very few, if anyone at all will question the fact that there will be a limit to the amount of oil which can be extracted from our planet, and that the present production rate of oil is huge. Many oilfields have already been exhausted, and year-by-year geologists simply go looking for new reserves. Luckily, for all of us they have kept finding more, and enough reserves have so far been found each year to fuel the world's oil demand, albeit with rising prices.
However, each year it becomes harder to find the oil, and the known reserves have not increased for the last few years.
Many experts say that within possibly 10 years from now, all unexplored parts of the world that might contain oil reserves will have been searched and drilled into. When that happens, mineral oil production will peak, and begin to reduce. That will be the day that man will cease to be within the current age of independence from nature. Once, again man will depend upon the energy from the sun, which falls on the earth each year, to survive, just like the rest of nature. (I will assume that nuclear power is too unpopular, and in reality too dangerous, to make a substantial contribution.)
During the new age of diminishing fossil fuel availability, man will either have to live far less interesting "low energy consuming" lives; uncomfortable lives (cold in winter and hot in summer), at a much lower standard of living with little travel, or adapt.
Now, for man's adaptation to work, the adaptation needed will have to be wide-ranging and massive, because man uses absolutely unbelievably huge amounts of fuel each year. This is fuel that has been stored from the sun over many thousands of years, and man uses this much each and every year.
It is going to be very hard indeed to find ways of creating as much fuel as we use today, from renewable (non-fossil fuel) sources. So, we will need to be much more fuel efficient as well as finding new ways to generate renewable energy.
When the large-scale use of the fossil fuel reserves (then mostly coal) started about 200 or so years ago, man respected nature, because he depended upon it for his survival. So it is, and will demonstrably be so, after the oil peaks.
Our scientists will need every bit of the diversity of all nature, which exists today to provide us with new ways to live and grow energy crops, while at the same time not causing climate change, or even having to reverse its worst consequences.
We all need to hope that when respect for nature returns, ALL our fellow creatures are still around to help us learn how to live in harmony with nature. Preserving nature, its diversity and wealth of yet undiscovered chemicals and ways of living, which started for many city dwellers with their love of cuddly furry animals, is really so important that it could make the difference between the survival of mankind, and the disappearance of our species.
That is why we should all help to preserve nature and make a sustainable future for our grandchildren, and all mankind on earth.
