Humans Are Unravelling The Intricate Web Of Life On Earth

Why Causing Wildlife Extinction is Dangerous for Humans and the Planet

Julie Smith, 5/5/26

This is a summary of Chapter 8, The Intricate Web of Life, in the book, “2050: What’s it Gonna Be?”.  You can download the full chapter, as well as other chapters.  References are here.

We should be proud of our earth and its diversity.  We are very lucky to be here, to live here, to have the perfect ecosystem to match our needs.  An ecosystem in which we humans have evolved along with the complex biodiversity that exists here over millions of years.  Now, humans are unravelling the intricate web of life on Earth that all species depend on. We now have the technology to understand how rare our planet really is, yet we are choosing to blow it off, take it for granted, and, literally, murder it, through our own complacency.  When we know.  We have no excuses here.  Has the human experiment failed epically, so catastrophically, is our arrogance and entitlement so great, that we are willing to knowingly and consciously allow ourselves to destroy our planet and all its diversity, including us, when we really don’t have to do very much to change course?

The definition of an ecosystem can be extended to specify that a “diverse” ecosystem is comprised of all levels of species that make up the complex web of life, with a huge variety of species at each level to fill every ecological niche, so that the system is constantly in a state of balance or fluctuation towards balance.  Basically, there are enough species to back each other up, so that if one or more species are lost, there are others to fill in the gaps and keep the entire ecosystem intact and functional.

Over the past several millions of years, as the earth’s environmental conditions and orientation with the sun have continuously changed gradually, ecosystems have changed, to stay in balance with their environments.  In this process, species that can no longer function in their ecosystem have inevitably gone extinct, to be replaced by more successful species that can function in the new environment.  The problem is, that in the past two centuries, mankind has blown this natural rate of extinction out of the water, and the extinction rate is now about a thousand times the natural extinction rate.  This is why our current level of wildlife decimation is being referred to as the 6^th mass extinction.

We are literally squeezing out the land for wildlife so they have no place to live, and tearing up ecosystems so fast we can barely measure it.  There is also pollution, the soup of toxic chemicals we have created and spewed everywhere.  We have distorted the nitrogen cycle, key to the web of life, with our wasteful overuse of synthetic fertilizers.  At a certain point, ecosystems simply disassemble, and once they’re gone, that’s it.  Nothing we or nature can do will replace them.  Not for millions of years at any rate.  Too late for us, that’s for sure.  All this destruction to satisfy the massive needs of humanity.  Does that sound scary?   Personally, I’m horrified.

For this planet and for our species to survive and thrive, we need diversity, with all its checks and balances, and we need all species from the top to the bottom of the food chain, to thrive and be in balance.  And we need that to happen naturally, without human intervention that wastes resources that could be left in the ecosystem, such as energy, water and materials, that are consumed in the process of “rehabilitating” a species.  Right now, we still have a chance to do this right.  Just leave the environment and species alone and many will regain their footing in their ecosystems.

My take on the intricate web of life is that we have only a high level general understanding of how ecosystems on our planet actually work, and how much of the plant and wildlife species our planet can do without until our destruction passes a point of no return.  Of one thing I’m absolutely positive:  if we don’t stop the carnage now, there will be no chance at all.  Think about that.  This means stopping the human activity that is destroying the life on our planet.

Most of us may not care about insects, but they are hugely important in the intricate web of life, and if we lose them, we'll be doomed. They are central to every ecosystem on the planet, yet we're killing them faster than any other category of wildlife. Monarch butterflies have declined 99% since the 1980's. Industrial agriculture is responsible for nearly half of the losses, which isn’t too much of a surprise.  Basically, the whole point of industrial agriculture is to poison the hell out of everything so the crops can grow with as few insects as possible.  Of course, this not only kills all the insects, it also sickens the farmers who work these crops and anybody who happens to live nearby or be passing through when the crops are being sprayed, but that’s another story.  This is why we need to grow organically, and if we can’t feed our population without spewing poisons everywhere, we need to reduce our population so that we can feed ourselves without poisoning all the life on the planet.  As individuals, we can choose to only buy and consume organic products.  We can also choose to avoid beef and dairy products, since a huge portion of crops are for livestock feed. Pork and Chicken are far more efficient sources of meat.

Since 1970, we’ve lost around three billion birds in the U.S. alone, 22% of forest birds, 37% of shore birds and 53% of grassland birds.³⁸  In Europe, it’s even worse.  Since 1980, the bird population has decreased by 55%, and a recent survey reports that the numbers of birds are at a “level approaching ecological catastrophe”.  Industrial farms are quiet, with no more bird song.  Is that depressing or what?  And the reasons are the same as for the other wildlife we’re trashing.  We’ve taken over their habitat with industrial farms, and spewed everything with pesticides, so if they try to eat, they get poisoned.  In the past 3 decades, Germany has lost 75% of its flying insects by mass, so there’s not much left for the birds to eat.³⁹

In general, decline of insects impacts all the rest of the wildlife because insects are at the bottom of the food chain, and the rest of the wildlife depends on them directly or indirectly for food, pollination and an endless variety of ecological services that the planet can't do without. This is why it's dangerous to lose the intricate web of life. If we're really so stupid as to continue with our wanton destruction of wildlife on our planet, we will pass a point of no return, from which the web cannot be recovered for millions of years. Obviously, if that happens we humans will go down as well. Let's please not do that. The best things we can do is eat only organically grown food, stay away from beef and dairy, only use natural and organic personal care and cleaning products, and reduce our population.

Humans are unravelling the intricate web of life on Earth, and we must stop now if we want to save our planet.