Your new book centres around the idea that humanity has brought about ecological crisis almost as a rite of passage, to pave the way for transcendence. Why is this your view?

We are hardwired for transcendent experience, which is why traditional cultures all around the world have initiatory ordeals such as vision quests, psychedelic journeys, walkabouts and so on. Modern western civilisation denies the need for this, but if humans can’t find transcendence they will seek it negatively, through destructive episodes such as wars. We have known about the ecological threat for decades but we have been unable to act to deal with it. I believe we are subconsciously seeking a collective threshold of intensity in order to bring about our own transformation.

We forget how life and our civilisation is inherently miraculous

Sum up your vision for a mass social movement to address this crisis we face

There are many movements already happening all over the world, but somehow this vast ‘people’s movement’ has been unable to transform the society as a whole. I see that we could organise something like a global direct democracy or an alternative system for exchanging value through the internet. Because of the scalability of internet-based projects, this could happen quickly. The people could create something like a ‘digital nation’ based on principles and transparency, for instance. Whether this happens remains to be seen.

To what extent do you think this is possible?

We forget how life and our civilisation is inherently miraculous. We are ten trillion cells and microorganisms held by gravity to a sphere whirling around an atomic fireball, whirling around a black hole in the middle of infinite empty space. Just a few thousand years ago, we were apes, and now we have a global communications system and are considering settling other worlds. Anything is possible! Imagination, willpower, discipline and courage are the keys.

We will eventually reduce our focus on virtual technologies, realising they are degraded substitutes, as love and community become central again

You call for an “intentional and consciously designed metamorphosis of our current systems”. What would this look like?

I think we would want a basic income or subsidy so people didn’t have to feel anxious about the basis of their own existence. We would want a post-capitalist system where work was voluntary due to automation. People would have more time to live, perhaps in multigenerational communities where they develop their creativity and cultivate their unique individualities, spending more time with children and loved ones. We will, at the same time, explore the infinite inner dimensions of consciousness as a new direction or a new frontier for humanity. We will have a decentralised democracy that scales from the local to the bioregional to the planetary level. We will, I think, eventually reduce our focus on virtual technologies, realising they are degraded substitutes, as love and community become central again.

You’ve said that such a change will occur only when we see ourselves as one planetary tribe. Why is this?

Tribal people saw themselves as the ‘in group’ compared to other humans who were part of an ‘out group’ and therefore not fully human. Modern society has perpetuated this with nationalism and racism, and misogyny now even, gaining adherents. We are only going to survive and then thrive as a species when we realise we are one human family, all genetically related from one African ancestor. We have a role we can step in to in terms of the Earth’s ecology which is to serve and protect the community of life. Indigenous tribal people also model that for us.

Image: Murtaugh

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August saw the discovery of several species new to science, including a howling Peruvian monkey, a centimetre-long toad in Brazil, 13 spiders in Australia, and for the first time in history a new species was found on Facebook when a scientist stumbled upon a stranger’s photograph of an unfamiliar plant. Though touted as important findings, a more subtle implication rumbles beneath the surface: the ceaseless influx of species to our catalogue of life forms suggests we’re far from understanding the entirety of nature’s web, despite the common conception of human superiority.

Novel species flood our museums at an unstoppable rate. 2014 alone saw the discovery of 18,000 unidentified organisms, such as a frog that gives birth to live tadpoles and a wasp that feeds spiders to her young while using dead ants to seal the front door of her nest.

“The ceaseless influx of species to our catalogue of life forms suggests we’re far from understanding the entirety of nature’s web.”

With around 1.2 million species described, the question that has baffled naturalists for centuries is: how much is left? Dr Boris Worm, a Canadian marine research ecologist, and colleagues are thought to have achieved the most credible estimation to date, which points to the existence of around 8.7 million species – in other words, a pretty hefty gap in our knowledge.

Such estimations, however, are tagged to high degrees of uncertainty. In particular, the realm of the very small bewilders even our most precise scientific instruments, to which we humans can only doff our cap at the sheer intricacy. One spoonful of average soil will contain around 10,000 species of bacteria and plenty will be foreign to science.

One may be tempted to assume that those species left concealed are simply unreachable, hiding in ocean depths or inaccessible groundwater. Though true for some, potential discoveries are right under our noses. When mycologists Bryn Dentinger and and Laura Martinez-Suz bought a product labelled ‘30g of dried porcini’ from a supermarket in London, they decided to investigate and uncovered not one, but three new species of fungi.

Bestowed with 21st century technology, it may sometimes feel we’re on the precipice of becoming godlike creatures, sculpting the world in our own image, but evolution has been spinning ‘miracles’ for us in the form of medicine that we couldn’t dream of pioneering in laboratories. Coral reefs remain an untapped biochemical larder of life-savings drugs, as many creatures produce obscure chemical defences to protect themselves from enemies. Certain types of sponge, for example, can synthesise anti-cancer substances now licensed to treat leukaemia. Only a fraction of these underwater pharmacies have been harnessed.

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When highlighting our humbling unawareness of life on Earth, Australian scientist Lord Robert May commented in the journal, PLoS Biology: “It is a testament to humanity’s narcissism that we know the number of books in the US Library of Congress on 1 February 2011 was 22,194,656, but cannot tell you – within an order of magnitude – how many distinct species of plants and animals we share our world with.”

While the Voyager satellite exits our solar system and Curiosity roams the surface of Mars, whether it is an untrodden path, a rock unturned, or an ocean depth unreachable, the treasure hunt of Earth continues to tantalise us far beyond the conquest of our microscopes.

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According to the UK botanical centre’s five-year science strategy launched in February, improved research distribution could boost the institution’s role in global plant conservation efforts. The strategy includes projects to gather plant information from developing countries and publish research online (see list below).

“Our core purpose at Kew stems from a simple but often overlooked truth: that all our lives depend on plants and fungi,” said Kathy Willis, Kew’s director of science.

At the launch event, she pointed out that global climate change, population increases, rising living standards and growing biofuel use will hugely alter the variety and quantity of plant life, and the world’s ability to feed itself. Given the scale of these challenges, she said, Kew has a responsibility to make its work available to the public and decision-makers.

Willis admitted that Kew had previously been weak at disseminating the work of the gardens, so this would be a vital strand of the strategy to make Kew a true global knowledge resource.

The strategy sets out three priorities. As well as disseminating knowledge, Kew also wants to document and conduct research into global plant and fungal diversity and its uses, and to curate and provide evidence from its collections as a global asset for research. This work is meant to support food security and environment protection efforts around the world.

As part of the strategy, Kew will continue to collect seeds, with the hope of having stored a quarter of the world’s known and bankable seeds in its Millennium Seed Bank by 2020. The garden will also continue to digitise its collection, eventually allowing free online access to its records of all seven million specimens held in its collection.

But the strategy was published following a financial crisis at the institution.

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A combination of a fall in UK government funding and contributions from independent charity the Kew Foundation meant Kew faced a budget hole of £5 million (around US$7.7 million) — roughly a tenth of its budget — in 2014/15. This led to the loss of more than 100 jobs, around half of them in the garden’s science department.

A 2010 report written by consultants on behalf of the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said the department’s planned funding cuts would end Kew’s reputation as a world-class scientific institution.

Kew’s director Richard Deverell says the restructuring was not just down to this funding cut, but also to put in place the “structure, skills and resources to deliver the science strategy”. Kew is seeking other funding sources, and will launch a consultancy arm later this year to help fund its scientific vision, he says.

Kew’s new science initiatives

– Tropical Important Plant Areas: a project to name and identify plants in environmentally threatened tropical regions. The work will focus on seven locations: Bolivia, Cameroon, Guinea, Mozambique and Uganda as well as the island of New Guinea and the British overseas territories in the Caribbean

– The Plant and Fungal Trees of Life: Kew will use its collections to complete an evolutionary tree of life based on DNA analysis

– Plants of the World Online Portal: Kew aims to put all the information it has about the world’s known plant species online by 2020

– State of the World’s Plants: This annual ‘horizon scan’ on issues such as endangered and invasive species is due to be launched in December as a tool for governments, policymakers and conservationists

– A new master’s course in plant and fungal taxonomy, diversity and conservation will be offered in partnership with Queen Mary, University of London, from September. Funding for some students from the developing world will be underwritten by the Kew Foundation

First published by SciDev

//More info//
Kew’s science strategy

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When millions of monarch butterflies take to the sky and fly thousands of kilometres from the United States and southern Canada to Mexico, the view is breathtaking. But over the last few decades, their numbers have plummeted, and last year hit an all-time low.

Illegal logging in Mexican forests, where the monarchs hibernate during winter, has traditionally been to blame. But large-scale logging by companies appears to have been halted. And now small-scale logging by local people for firewood and timber – a “growing concern in 2013” – has also stopped, according to a study published in October in Biological Conservation.

This is partly due to “decade-long financial support from Mexican and international philanthropists and businesses to create local alternative income generation and employment,” it says. Schemes such as community tree nurseries, the growing ecotourism sector and community surveillance of illegal logging have generated new sources of income for local people.

Twenty years ago, around a billion monarchs arrived each year in Mexico. Last year, just 35 million arrived, the lowest number since monitoring began 20 years ago, says Omar Vidal, director of WWF-Mexico, a national office of conservation organisation the World Wide Fund for Nature, and a co-author of the study.

“Action to stop illegal logging is thanks to efforts from local communities, authorities, civil society organisations and the private sector”

“Our decade-long research shows that action to stop illegal logging in the monarch overwintering grounds are working thanks to efforts from local communities, authorities, civil society organisations and the private sector,” he adds.

Each year, the butterflies migrate up to 4,500 kilometres from their North American breeding grounds east of the Rocky Mountains to spend the winter – typically from October to March – hibernating in the fir and pine forests of central Mexico.

Until just a few years ago, large-scale illegal logging was devastating the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a 56,000 hectare area of forest established by the Mexican government in 1980. But this has now largely stopped. Between 2001 and 2012, Vidal and his WWF-Mexico colleague Eduardo Rendón-Salinas monitored the amount of forest damaged by illegal logging.

In a study on this research published in Conservation Biology last year, they found that 731 hectares of the reserve were affected from 2005 to 2007. In 2012, thanks to law enforcement and surveillance efforts, none of the reserve was damaged, they reported.

A far greater problem for the butterfly now is the sharp decline in milkweed – the only plant on which its caterpillars feed – in the monarch’s North American breeding grounds, says Vidal.

“It is now time for the United States and Canada to redouble their efforts to protect and restore breeding and migrating habitat within their territories,” he says. “Only then will there be hope that monarchs in North America will recover.”

This view is echoed by 40 leading monarch scientists and 200 organisations and businesses in the United States, who in November wrote to the US Fish and Wildlife Service calling for the butterfly to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

This follows a formal petition in August led by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Unlike in Mexico and Canada, the monarch has no legal protection in the United States.

“The biggest threat to monarchs is now loss of habitat in their summer breeding grounds in the United States,” Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, told SciDev.Net.

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The cause is the use of herbicides on soya bean and maize crops in these areas in the Midwest, she says. The crops are genetically engineered to be resistant to the pesticide, but milkweed is devastated, she adds.

“Especially at this time of increasing human population and resource demand, and when corporate interests are intent on making huge profits even at the expense of endangered species and their habitat, accurate data [on butterfly migration patterns] is key to gaining and enforcing legal protection for species,” Curry says.

In their recent study, Vidal and Rendón-Salinas say joint action by Mexico, Canada and the United States is urgently needed, and that “only through an immediate, coordinated and well-funded effort that involves politicians, managers, scientists and the public to protect and restore habitat along its migratory route in the three countries” will the monarch be saved.

In Mexico, this will hinge on ensuring local people have other forms of income, and on continuing the on-the-ground surveillance to avoid the resurgence of illegal logging, they say.

First published by SciDev

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Following mediation with the UK government, Soco released a joint statement with environmental group WWF on 11 June, in which Soco committed “not to undertake or commission any exploratory or other drilling within Virunga National Park unless UNESCO and the DRC government agree that such activities are not incompatible with its World Heritage status.”

Anthony Field, campaigns specialist for WWF, said that it was a “huge success for conservation and for the three quarters of a million who signed the petition. Most importantly, it’s really good news for the park, and the wildlife and communities that rely on it.”

In a further development just six days afterwards, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee carried out a regular review of the Virunga site and elected to maintain the heritage status and urged the DRC to revoke all oil permits. They also reiterated their position that “oil, gas and mineral exploration and exploitation are incompatible with World Heritage status globally.”

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Field said that before UNESCO made this decision, “the door was still open,” but now, “there is no way Soco can go back.”

However, the volatile political situation in the DRC still means the park is at risk. “Day in day out, the park wardens put their lives on the line to protect the park,” said Field. “We really need to see stability and peace in the region.”

Virunga, he said was “the mother of all national parks in Africa and it holds a very special place in the heart of the Congolese people.”

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A pioneering new survey technique that analyses DNA traces in water is set to revolutionise the way scientists monitor great crested newts across the UK.

The new method allows researchers to quickly and easily determine whether newts are present in ponds and streams, offering fresh hope for future great crested newt numbers, which have declined dramatically in the last century.

Although the species has protection under UK and European law, a shortage of suitable breeding and resting places – and deterioration of existing habitats – is a major cause for this decline. Half of the UK’s ponds were lost during the 20th century, and of those that remain, 80% are in a poor state.

“Previously it has been impossible to determine whether the great crested newt population was going up or down because it was just too time-consuming and expensive to visit enough sites to get a reliable national or regional picture,” said Dr Jeremy Biggs, project leader and director of Freshwater Habitats Trust.

That has now changed thanks to the new technique, which correctly detected newts in 91% of the 250 ponds tested – a far more accurate and effective result than traditional methods, which include counting newts by torchlight, bottle trapping and searching for eggs. It was also at least 10 times faster to detect species than was previously possible.

Freshwater and wetlands are among the most threatened habitats in the natural world, so the research, led by the Freshwater Habitats Trust, the University of Kent and genetics company SpyGen, offers great potential in aiding the conservation of many rare and endangered aquatic animals.

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