book review
Feral Future by Tim Low, published by Viking, Ringwood, Victoria (1999)
by Robbo Bennetts
Did you know, when in the outdoors, if you regularly pee in the same spot, you will fertilise the soil sufficiently to support most weeds? Or that cats may have arrived here hundreds of years before Europeans*, and may not be the species exterminators they have traditionally been depicted? Or that Australia’s largest wild animal is the camel? And Australia is the only place in the world where one-humped camels run free?
Furthermore, did you know:
These suggestions, and many more, are made by Tim Low in his fascinating and very readable tome entitled Feral Future. Low is an invasion biologist. He details the history of invasion of Australia by exotic species, and the export of Australian species overseas. He draws our attention to the homogenisation (sometimes referred to as the “McDonaldisation”) of global ecology at the expense of local ecosystems that have developed in isolation for ages.
Although Low sees invasion as a perfectly natural process, he regards exotic invasions as our second most urgent ecological problem after habitat loss. He points out that over 2,700 new plants have colonised Australia in the last 200 years, compared to one or two plants per millennium previously. Consequently, our natural environments are under siege. “People are felling forests, damming rivers, polluting harbours and generally turning the place upside down as never before. Wherever native species are retreating from this disruption, invaders . . . seize the opportunity to move in. Ancient ecosystems are collapsing and new ones are taking their place.”
One question which all of this raises immediately is, why worry? Many intelligent people don’t worry. It is natural, after all, and fairly inevitable. Besides, what we have — even if it isn’t exactly what was here 200 years ago — is still amazingly beautiful. Do we worry about the disappearance of dying cultures and languages? How puristic can we afford to be? These are difficult questions that will provoke a variety of responses.
To pose an easier question, just how feral is our future? Low seeks the support of others to paint a picture of a biological world that is becoming simpler and poorer, where everything will live virtually everywhere, though the list of species that constitutes “everything” will be much smaller. Perhaps half of the animal species alive today will be doomed to extinction through competition.
When Low looks at our natural environment, he sees “painful images of so much disfigured bushland”. Others no doubt see something else. It cannot be denied, however, that we are losing ancient and unique systems and life forms at an exponential rate. If you accept Suzuki’s assertion that biodiversity is as important to the survival of our species as clean air and clean water, then this loss must be a matter of concern. For my part, I react when I see things, which I knew and valued as a child, appearing to disappear forever.
If it is worth the effort of fighting biological invasion, what can we do? According to Low, we can do little about most pests that are already here, but that doesn’t mean we are powerless. We have the power to prevent future disasters. Low offers us a range of options designed to enable us to better manage our feral future. None of these options are surprising in light of Low’s construction of the problem. Examples include changing our gardening practices, reducing our impact, joining or forming bushcare groups, raising the awareness of others.
What, specifically, can Outdoor Educators do (apart from not always peeing in the same spot)? It follows from Low that we should educate ourselves and others about invasive life forms. We should revisit our minimal impact codes and practices, and adopt best practices to help arrest the spread of disruptive life forms like cinnamon fungus and weed seeds. We should make more time in our programs to conduct community service programs like pulling up weeds. We should encourage a whole-school approach to tackling local environmental problems. Perhaps we should consider not visiting more fragile areas. Perhaps we should re-define fragile.
Feral Future is an important book. If we ignore the issues it raises, it will be at our own feral peril.
(* Recent DNA testing suggests that all feral cats originated from the first white settlement of Australia - Ed. 2008.)
This review was first published in Journeys, Victorian Outdoor Education Association, Melbourne, June 2000.