Bamboo, change and other wonder fibres
Resilient systems are based on their ability to adapt to change. I feel an onrushing tide of panic at the thought of sudden situation change; homelessness, a lost wallet, amputation, my favourite menu option being unexpectedly struck from the breakfast itinerary because apparently no one chose it apart from me and one customer is not enough to justify the making of it. Not necessarily in order of importance there.
Environmentally, sudden change can knock the equilibrium of a climax community pushing it beyond the point of no return. Some see this as unacceptable, especially if anthropogenic activities can be blamed and a populace shamed about their unethical everyday activities. No one seems to think that this is could be evolution in progress. If a system cannot adapt, does it have relevance anymore? Take Spanish bluebells. They are out breeding and out competing our native bluebell specie, which cannot resist the onslaught of the immigrant population. Originally planted in private gardens for their larger flowers and wider colour range, a survey has found that 1 in 6 broadleaf woodlands in the UK now contain Spanish bluebells. Ripping up the invaders as a form of conservation is perhaps a slight waste of time. They’re loud, proud and here to stay.
We are irrevocably tied to nature through our historical impact and through current management of ‘wild’ plagio-climax areas, such as Dartmoor national park where burning is used to control gorse and maintain heathland. Human management goes back thousands of years to the time the first hunter gatherer picked up the plough and altered the landscape. Even areas we now recognise now as wild areas in the UK have been shaped by humanity. Take the New Forest. Created by William the Conqueror for private hunting, the same area of land was cleared for agricultural purposes in the Bronze age.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many reasons to conserve and protect nature and many great initiatives to do so. E O Wilson’s biodiversity foundation is pioneering an initiative to protect half the earth and reserve it for nature, called ‘The Half Earth Project’. Like the ecologically minded backwards Thanos of modern day conservation. The venerable ecologist insists that without action, many species will become extinct, some we don’t even know about yet. However take the bluebells again, if we leave the ‘wild’ to do it’s thing but don’t like what progressively happens; do we intercede?
Conservation needs global support and input to truly be effective. Biodiverse ‘hotspots’ do not just benefit the countries they’re in, they also provide services globally; Oxygen, carbon sequestration, weather making, genetics, pharmaceuticals. Yasuni ITT was an initiative in Ecuador aimed at protecting the Yasuni national park, a biodiversity hotspot, from destruction via oil extraction. The park lay above 20% of the countries oil reserves, which the country pledged to leave in the ground aided by the financial backing of the international community. This folded due to lack of international monetary support.
You may be wondering at this point where the bamboo and wonder fibres come in. I suppose bamboo is an example of a resilient fibre. Fast growing and low maintenance, its production can be less polluting than cotton with lower inputs. It could be a wonder fibre. As with everything though, the system is the thing that makes the product. You can get organic cotton and you can get bleached pesticide cotton. Lush cosmetics or Tesco's own brand. Bamboo can be grown ‘naturally’ and then undergo chemical process to extract the fibre which effectively cancels out the green credentials. Other alternative fibres; Kapok, Hemp, Flax, Agave.
So how do we conserve while allowing change, as change is the evolutional tool. Genetic variation is essential for keeping ahead of disease, and essential for adapting to environmental pressure. As Miley Cyrus says— ‘change is a thing you can count on’.
