Q: What do the following species have in common: Agile frog, large copper butterfly, blue stag beetle, ghost orchid, apple bumblebee and Dalmatian pelican?
A: Most people have never heard of them. Oh, and all of them are now extinct in Britain.
Our planet was once richer than we can imagine. In the UK, if you speak to someone who grew up in the 1950s (or if you grew up then yourself) they may well recall walking through clouds of butterflies. When was the last time you walked through a cloud of butterflies, let alone thought it was normal? And these butterfly clouds weren't as impressive as those in the 1850s.
Ecologists use the term ‘Shifting Baseline Syndrome.’ We all sufferers. The term was coined by fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly after he realised that ecologists aimed to restore fish stocks to the levels they were at at the beginning of their careers. But these levels were already severely diminished.
Shifting Baseline Syndrome is a kind of ecological amnesia, as Wilding author Isabella Tree puts it. Many of us want to protect and restore our wild places, and this is fantastic. But we often assume that nature as we encountered it in our childhoods is the benchmark for how our depleted world should be now. But look more closely. What we don’t realise is that even the richer natural world of our early years is a pale shadow of what it once was.
With each generation our expectations are eroded. It’s tragic enough that we have lost so much biodiversity. But not even knowing it makes it worse. We come to accept our ecologically ravaged landscape we inherit as normal, or perhaps just a bit below par.
And here’s the embarrassing bit. The 2016 State of Nature report found that the UK is ‘among the most nature-depleted countries in the world’. It ranks 189th out of 218 assessed.
Here are a just are a few example of the countless wild wonders we have lost:
500AD (probably more recently in Scotland) The shy and beautiful lynx roamed our forests.
1000AD Six foot cod were abundant off our coasts.
1600s Wildcats were common across the whole of Britain.
1770s Herring shoals six miles long and four miles wide were normal.
1790s Golden eagles were still nesting in North Yorkshire.
1800s Richmond Park in London was teeming with lapwings.
1900 Cuckoos could be heard in most villages in Britain.
1930s Huge 850lb bluefin tuna were found in British waters.
1940s Large house sparrow flocks were common in city parks.
1950 Red squirrels could still be found in Cornwall.
1960s ‘Moth snowstorms’ were a common sight on night time drives through the countryside . . .
Not only have we lost species, but many of those that remain have fallen victim to the ‘great thinning’. In his excellent book The Moth Snowstorm, Michael McCarthy uses this chilling term to point to the dramatic but often overlooked reduction in the numbers of once common wildlife.
Instead of getting depressed about it, let's use this knowledge as inspiration, as fuel. In the midst of this biodiversity crisis we need vision. What would it be like to live in world where abundant wildlife thrives alongside humans? What would it take to have a human culture that has a net positive impact on the biosphere? If we are to rewild our world it helps to have some sense of what is possible. A life-rich world is not at odds with thriving human culture. If you’re reading this you are no doubt well aware that the opposite is actually the case.
Standing up for habitats and species that are being destroyed is essential but not enough. We need to insist on more. We should be demanding a world brimming with life.
And let's not forget what is already happening. Beavers are making a comeback in many parts of Britain and white-tailed tailed eagles are bringing wildness back to southern England. These and many other projects shows that we can turn things around when we put our minds to it. Now that’s worth remembering.
Sources and inspiration
Macdonald, B. 2019. Rebirding: Rewilding Britain and its birds. Pelagic Publishing: Exeter.
McCarthy, M. 2016. The Moth Snowstorm : Nature and Joy. John Murray: London.
Monbiot, G. 2013. Feral: Rewilding the land, sea and human life. Penguin: London.
Tree, I. 2018. Wilding: The return of nature to a British Farm. Picador: London.
Websites
Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation