Book Review: Understanding The Challenges Of This Bountiful Planet

The easy part about environmental awareness is developing curiosity for nature. The tough part is trying to understand the complex phenomenon of climate change, imagining the climate future and devising appropriate cultural responses. The rise in global temperature, the acidification of oceans, the melting of polar ice, the loss of plant and animal biodiversity, pollution and soil degradation, among other forms of ecological destruction, are the outcomes of human actions. How do we reverse what we altered? How do we endure what we are affected by?

Our Potpourri Planet, written by conservationist Ranjit Lal, and published by HarperCollins, is an exhortation to affirm our commitment to the environment and, importantly, make eco-friendly lifestyle choices and reduce our consumerist lifestyle. In telling the climate change story, Lal gives an overall picture of the slow violence on the living planet (borrowing author Rob Nixon’s term), and says it is time for climate protection.

Ranjit Lal did not want to write another “doomsday-predicting horror” story. He had no training in the environmental sciences to write on a subject that is in the realm of science and statistics. However, equipped with the qualification of decades of observation of the natural world, he begins his narrative at where he began: exploring nature. The book is divided into three thematic parts. In Part I, Lal compares Earth to a potpourri — a planet with abundant and varied life forms and interconnected ecosystems. Part II discusses the harms caused to the environment and also spotlights some successful environmental activism and carbon sequestration efforts. Part III is dedicated to the steps being taken at the local levels to reboot ecosystems and leaves the readers with suggestions to reduce the carbon footprint.

The magic molecule, mushrooms and more

Ranjit Lal’s interactions with nature began in his childhood spent in Chennai, in a wild garden full of surprises. In the book, he connects the climate challenges with his own experiences in the natural world.

The first part begins with the chapter Green Magic, which is about the miracle molecule chlorophyll, which harnesses the steady source of energy from the sun to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release life-sustaining oxygen into the atmosphere. Excessive deforestation reduces the amount of oxygen available for life on the planet and the greenery to absorb the overhanging carbon dioxide. Lal suggests that in order to prevent the planet from overheating, we must “set free” very little carbon dioxide into the air, capture the escaped gas and sequester it, learning from the process already existing in nature: plants use carbon dioxide to grow, and when they die, the gas gets buried along with the decayed leaves and turns into fossil fuel. By extracting fossil fuels to power our factories and vehicles, we are once again setting the trapped carbon dioxide free and messing with the natural balance in the atmosphere, he says.

Another chapter Emeralds from the mud, takes the readers through anecdotes from Lal’s school days when he watched seeds germinate and, thanks to time-lapse photography, tendrils of creepers searching for support to twirl themselves firmly. The “powerful roots” of the fig can garrot the host tree on which its tiny seed germinates or cracks a building it colonises. But the “mighty fig” depends on a particular tiny wasp to pollinate its inflorescences and birds and bats to propagate the seeds. Every Ficus species has a special pollinating wasp. In nature, all acts and actors are pre-determined. Mutualism in nature indicates a functioning ecosystem.

Lal also throws light on magic mushrooms in another chapter by explaining the role of the mycorrhizal fungi in enabling roots of stronger trees to provide carbon supplement to weaker ones. He writes, “Fungi can be invaluable to the health of a forest ecosystem, especially in this time of climate change”. Roots form the news-and-nutrient network of trees, and the fungi act as the messenger and delivery boy of roots. In The Overstory, Richard Powers evokes the unseen role of trees thus: “That’s the trouble with people. Their root problem. Life runs alongside them unseen. Right here, right next. Creating the soil. Cycling water. Trading in nutrients. Making weather. Building atmosphere. Feeding and curing and sheltering more kinds of creatures than people know how to count.”

The world of insects and other wildlife

Non-human life forms have their niche in the natural world. How does one know this? By paying attention to the world around us. For a long time, the author was dismissive of insects. Well, all of us generally are. Until we begin to pay attention to their activity/behaviour and admire their various shapes and colours. We might not fully understand their role in the ecosystem or about their contribution to prey-predator dynamics or their little secrets. The author provides an engaging description of his chance spotting of a caterpillar munching on kumquat leaves. Driven by curiosity to see the caterpillar turn into a butterfly, he placed it in a jam jar and replenished it with kumquat leaves every day. The caterpillar, fattened sufficiently, began its transformative phase by self-destructing its caterpillar cell and using its “second secret cell containing the blueprint for the butterfly” to develop, nourished by the smoothie of the first cell.

The collapse of insects, which studies say is imminent, owing to spraying of insecticides and herbicides, can have a detrimental effect on birds and reptiles that depend on them for food. Frogs are also sensitive indicators of a healthy ecosystem. They keep the insect population in check and themselves make a good meal for other reptiles and birds. Lal gives an account of the community feeding of a nilgai carcass he had witnessed. The scavengers included bluebottle flies and a battalion of bullfrogs “like a lumpy moving carpet” on the open ribcage of the animal with herons and egrets in attendance. He says removing an apex predator from a habitat, as in the case of crocodiles at the site of the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, can result in other species becoming dominant in the ecosystem.

The endangered gharial is intolerant to toxic water, an indication that our river systems need to be cleaned. Raising concerns that the five species of turtles found on the Indian shores are poached for meat and medicine, the author invites the readers to watch the sight of arribada, the mass arrival of female turtles to the shores to lay their eggs and return to the ocean.

Sea changes

Like salt marshes and mangroves in coastal ecosystems, seagrass meadows sequester carbon and absorb and release nutrients into the water. They play host to myriads of sea creatures and large mammals such as the dugong and the sea turtle. Seagrass is also becoming stressed because of the algal bloom caused by nutrients from sewage, industrial waste and agricultural run-off. Eight million tonnes of garbage is dumped in the oceans every year, notes Our Potpourri Planet. Beaches are awash with plastic bottles, bags and other flotsam. Sea animals get caught in abandoned fishing nets. Microplastics have been detected in the digestive tracts of animals. In this context, the author recounts his observation of hermit crabs on Morjim beach in Goa, which were on the lookout for a fitting shell to take shelter (as hermit crabs are wont). The “housing shortage in hermit crab society” is such that the creatures mistake plastic bottles or caps washed into the ocean “for a possible home”. He quotes a study which found that “570,000 hermit crabs die annually by getting trapped in plastic debris in just two South Pacific islands”. Organisms latching on to plastics may be moving away from their habitat, causing disruption in ecology.

In the book Ocean of Life: How Our Seas Are Changing, marine conservation biologist Callum Roberts invokes Aldo Leopold’s words, “to keep every cog and wheel is the first rule of intelligent tinkering”, to emphasise that “Nature’s variety is one of its great assets when it comes to coping with change, and therefore it is one of ours.” We must understand the supporting role of marine life and act quickly to prevent ocean pollution as acidification can have a cascading effect on ocean ecosystems.

Global warming and unusual weather patterns have also upset the migratory schedules of birds and their breeding timetable, which instead of coinciding with the caterpillar boom begins after the larvae have moved on, and the sardine runs in the south-east coast of Africa. Experiments in Alaksa are said to have found that the hibernating habits of the ground squirrel may have changed. The female squirrels are waking up earlier than the males and this status change could alter their reproduction pattern in the long run. The melting ice caps in the polar regions is causing disturbance to undersea migratory routes of whales, dolphins and other mammals and the foraging habits of the seal-hunting polar bear. Lal also expresses concern over the absence of the Siberian crane from its traditional wintering grounds in the Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur.

Nature’s response

Our Potpourri Planet also discusses the impacts of nature’s response which manifests in the form of prolonged dry seasons, frequent forest fires, devastating floods caused by improbable rainfall and rising sea levels, to our anthropogenic activities such as burning fossil fuels, transgressing building rules to develop floodplains, habitat destruction for development, as in the recent case of the Great Nicobar Development Plan, and depletion of resources to feed a hungry consumerist society.

In order to avoid another “mass extinction event”, the author suggests that we aim for a higher forest cover, restore natural habitats to their original state, establish corridors between them for wildlife movement, adopt rewilding measures and reintroduce keystone species of flora and fauna.

The attempt to rewild urban landscapes by establishing the Yamuna Biodiversity Park and Aravalli Biodiversity Park have been successful in bringing back wildlife to these areas; the Haryana government is planning to create a safari-park-cum-zoo in the Aravallis, which would defeat the very purpose of rewilding, he writes.

Steps in the right direction

What are humans doing to prevent the planet from overheating? Lal mentions the various measures put in place such as emission control, carbon capture, stricter pollution norms, harnessing renewable energy, encouraging organic farming, afforestation and reforestation, but worries that these are not on a scale required to outpace the climate challenges. He also gives credit to several non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace, New Delhi-based Chintan, the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Nava Danya, Pune-based Kalpavriksh, and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) for creating an awareness about environmental issues; “guardian angels” who have worked to save animal species (Jane Goodall for chimpanzees; Birute Galdikas for orangutans, among others), forests (the Chipko movement in Tehri) and mangroves (Koli fisherwomen of Maharashtra); and created bamboo forests in Assam (Jadav ‘Molai’ Payeng). The book also highlights some of the initiatives undertaken by citizens to mitigate the environmental crisis locally, a fitting way to conclude, as stories of resilience and mitigation are the way forward to increase climate change preparedness.

The Magsaysay award winner Sonam Wangchuck’s ice stupas in the cold desert arose out of a felt need for water for spring crops in Ladakh in view of erratic snowfall and the backing up of glaciers. On the island of Bali (Indonesia), Melati and Isabel Wisjen, two sisters barely in their teens, started a movement in 2014 called ‘Bye-Bye Plastic Bags’ and forced the government in 2018 to enforce a law banning the use of plastic bags. In 2013, Boyan Slat, a Dutch teenager, started ‘The Ocean Clean Up’ to remove plastic garbage floating on the oceans. Afroz Shah launched a successful clean-up drive in the Versova beach of Mumbai, so much so that olive ridleys have once again returned to breed on the beach.

The engaging text in Our Potpourri Planet is accompanied by Anushua Sinha’s vivid illustrations. However, there are some editing oversights. For example, a line reads, “Prunes are dried figs!!” No, they are dried plums. The book would have benefitted from some pruning, too.

(Published under Creative Commons from Mongabay India. Read the original article here)