The Web

I’ve always been aware that no one being solely impacts itself. Yet, I was ignorant of how interconnected our earth is. I once thought of the world as being a collection of groups, a colony of independent systems. Each system having its own interplay of threads, one may be pulled, and somewhere within the system, that tug has an effect. Yet, this is simply not true. While the notion of cause and effect is evident, the earth does not consist of many individual systems, instead, the earth itself is a system. Every species, every, plant, every action, and every thought tug on the threads of the earth systems web. This concept was clearly solidified in the video, “How Wolves Change Rivers”. Astonishingly, or perhaps predictably, when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, the entire landscape and system was transformed. As the wolves preyed on the deer, the deer’s behavior changed, grass and trees began to flourish, bird populations increased, beavers returned and made dams, where the otters, muskrats, ducks, and amphibians dwelled. The chain reaction continues, as bears, trout, eagles, coyotes and more are all impacted. This “trophic cascade”, as the videos denotes, all began with the reintroduction of wolves. While the wolves in Yellowstone had a massive impact on their landscape, there is much of the world in need of such invigoration. The shear mass of our planet, the scale with which we must better our system is daunting. Yet, I have hope. I have hope because our earth is a web, a singular system. As a singular system, one or many have the potential to impact a few or millions. Nadeem Aslam said it best “Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.”