Mother’s Day on earth and in the sticks

March 2015 53

Mother’s Day on earth

and in the sticks

Mother’s resilience is unpredictable, fragile and liable to ﬂip

Shirley Clerkin

CULTURE

IN THE STICKS

OTHER earth is on the brink. Ecosystems are

having breakdowns. Their resilience is harried

to the point where they can no longer absorb

additional disturbances, to function as they did before.

Like an overworked mother, they are ﬂipping into

another state, collapsing and ceasing to function eﬀec-

tively. It has been shown that ecosystems can suddenly

change and in some cases there may be no way back.

It is a “one way trip”, to an unknown destination.

Considering that we are entirely reliant on the system

of the earth to provide us with our dinners, water, air,

medicines and fuel it is weird how determinedly self-de-

feating we are as a species. Ungrateful children.

Olivia Woolley in her book on ecological govern-

ance notes that the phenomenon of ecological shifts is

of major concern for human wellbeing because it can

result in the replacement of systems that have provided

humanity with essential services by “poverty trap” sys-

tems that are unable to function. It can be hard to see

ecosystems ﬂipping in the sticks. I have been ponder-

ing this while pacing the swimming pool over the last

few weeks.

The transformation from a functioning ecosystem to

“poverty trap” systems is perhaps most easy to observe

in water-based systems. The reﬂective nature of the

water provides the canvas for an expression of the new

state when, for example, the nutrient displacements

from agricultural land to a lake system can no longer be

absorbed into the lake sediment. An algal bloom ﬂour-

ishes, depleting the lake’s oxygen at the same time and

forcing the ﬁsh to ﬂoat to the top, gasping for air. The

lake then becomes “impoverished”, unable to provide

what it did before, such as clean water and a suitable

habitat for ﬁsh.

I must admit though, the algal blooms are not all

that comes between me and swimming in local lakes.

It is the shattering temperature and the uneasy feeling

of there being nothing under my feet. In a swimming-

pool, the temperature is fairly constant throughout the

water column. When on a lake, I slide gingerly onto the

top warmish ﬁlm and try to stay there, unchallenged by

the cold, because in large, deep water-bodies the liquid

stratiﬁes and does not actually mix. This warm-blooded

animal is a bit of a coward, and not fond of uncharted

waters.

Unlike temperature though we cannot identify or

measure resilience with precision. The literature says “it

is not a ﬁxed quantity that deﬁnes a system”. Resilience

is the complex combination of attributes that enable the

ecosystem to resist the eﬀects of disturbance.

Resilience in an ecological sense refers to whether

an ecosystem can return to

its equilibrium state follow-

ing disturbance but also to

how much disturbance the

system can absorb before

shifting to an alternative

state. Lastly it refers to the

ability of an ecosystem to be

ﬂexible, to reorganise during

change, and retain the same

function, structure, identity

and feedbacks.

The diversity of species in

an ecosystem provides insur-

ance for its ability to retain its

current state and functions.

Another species may be able to take over the role of the

one lost. This has always happened often, but the com-

plexity of ecosystems make it impossible to identify

what eﬀect the removal of an apparently unimportant

species will have on the functioning and structure of the

ecosystem, especially when the diversity has already

been reduced. Biodiversity loss is the major threat to

ecosystem functioning.

The accumulation of “poverty-trap” ecosystems

increases the likelihood that other thresholds at a global

scale will be breached. If biodiversity loss continues on

peatlands, for example, causing an unexpected deteri-

oration in their ability to store carbon, the threshold

for greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced, which

could be the last straw, and cause the global climate

cycle to ‘ﬂip’ out.

Land-use change and rates of biodiversity loss are

some of the nine planetary boundaries, which should

not be crossed if the earth is to remain a safe space for

humans to live. Species loss is currently occurring at the

fastest rate since the last global mass extinction event

Mothers’ Day (March 17th) is for all mothers, for eve-

ryone who ever had one, particularly this St Patrick’s

day for Irish mothers, but it must also be for the biggest

mama of them all – Mother Earth. The danger is that

this great force may one day gather herself to bed, and

not get up again.

If your mother saw you wasting household resources,

you know what she would say. Virginia Woolf lost her

mother at an early age, sadly: “For we think back

through our mothers, if we are women”. I think that we

are all women.

It is time for us all to take to uncharted waters and

explore new ways of ecosystem protection before it is

too late. •

Resilience refers to

whether an ecosystem

can return to equilibrium,

how much disturbance

it can absorb before

shifting to an alternative

state and to its ability to

be ﬂexible

“