There are an astounding number of cracks in the pavement in the cemetery where I walk. Most of these cracks are filled with grass and other plants. Their seeds have miraculously tucked themselves into these tiny places where they are able to germinate and flourish. Is it random after all, when seeds appear in those places that provide them with the ideal conditions of sunlight, water, and shelter? I have spent a lifetime observing plants and I have concluded that their intelligence far surpasses our own.
Regardless how much concrete and asphalt and tar, regardless how many herbicides and weed-eaters we employ to destroy these plants, they prevail somehow. Abandoned fields and buildings – even neglected gardens – are covered in vegetation in virtually no time at all. I spent countless hours pulling Convolvulus (bindweed) from gardens. Their vertical roots can grow as deep as twenty feet below ground! The lateral roots grow intertwined, creating thick masses of roots anywhere from one to two feet deep, beneath landscape fabric that has been put down, in the erroneous belief that it can be stopped. The vine works its way tenaciously to the edges of the fabric until it merges out into the sunlight. This plant’s vines use anything and everything available (even each other) to climb on for support.
There is evidence that some species are already adapting to climate change. Some may not be able to and will join the ranks of those that have already become extinct; but many will succeed. Some corals, Sockeye and Pink salmon, Mediterranean thyme, Tawny owls, Red squirrels, and fruit flies are a few of the species that are evolving to deal with our warming climate, according to an article in the Smithsonian.
Even if we are entering what many scientists believe to be the Sixth Extinction, a few species have always remained, to kickstart a new era. Will humans be able to adapt? Insects and viruses are pros at adaptation. I do not believe that humans are willing to. This would require letting go of our stubbornness, our selfishness, our arrogance, and our ignorance. It would require giving up the need to dominate, to control, and to manipulate. As long as we continue to fight our perceived enemies by concocting toxic chemicals and other weaponry, we fight only ourselves. The viruses, the insects, and many plants will adapt; but we will create more illness for ourselves and others. Unless we too, learn to adapt, in the end we will lose.
