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The Future Eaters.

The Future Eaters, by Tim Flannery looks at a wide range of issues regarding the history of Australian ecological evolution, covering the ancient continent of Gondwana through to the modern continents of Australia and her surrounding island neighbours, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia. He discusses topics such as flora and fauna their evolution over the history of Australia, and with the formation of the islands mentioned above, so too were these unique environments also forming. Flannery delves into the causes of extinction of many of Australia’s past inhabitants and speculates what it was that caused so many species, the numbers in their thousands, to disappear from these harsh environments that probably took them thousands of years to evolve. Throughout the Future Eaters, Flannery paints a stark picture of inhospitable environments that help to shape not only those of the past but many species of present times. This is my take on what was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The first part of Tim Flannery’s tale of evolution and partial destruction of much of Australia’s and her neighbours inhabitants, looks at each of the lands and discusses them separately. From the ancient land of Gondwana, the islands that are now known as New Zealand, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Australia, and once extended beyond the South Pole, emerged ancient plant and animal life that has moved and evolved into distinct species unique to each of the modern landmasses (Flannery, 1994. p.26-29). Flannery, then sets out to explain each of ‘new lands’ and how each of them have created these very different species types for each of the very different islands.

On Australia, for example, many fossilised dinosaurs have been found, including the Labyrinthodont; a huge amphibian similar to that of a newt and the well-known Allosaurus; found in Victoria (Flannery, 1994. p. 36-37). Along with the known dinosaur species there are many plant species that have been discovered to exist in ancient Australia, some that exist only in other parts of the world today and some that have disappeared altogether (Flannery, 1994. p.35).

The Future Eaters describes each of these ‘new lands’ as unique and how each of them has developed differing species, very different from the other islands, over a period of millions of years when once they were all connected. Thus each of them has a unique characteristic that helped to form the type of habitats that exist today. From the diverse bird life that dominates New Zealand, including the magnificent Moa; a giant Emu like flightless bird that is now extinct, to the reptiles that survive in the cold conditions of New Zealand, and the nutrient rich soils, sustaining ancient plant life, that were formed from the combination of volcanoes, glacial action and rapid mountain growth (Flannery, 1994. p.53-66). New Caledonia, on the other hand has poor soil that supports what is described as the “most comprehensive assemblage of ancient trees in the world.” (Flannery, 1994. p. 43) Along with these trees are some primitive flowering plants that are only found on New Caledonia. The fauna that exists on New Caledonia is unusual in the fact that it is a relatively small number of birds, 44 compared to New Zealand’s 169, but has a diverse array of reptiles (Flannery, 1994. p.42-51).

The Future Eaters then goes on to describe the effects man has had on these ‘new lands’. From the extinction of the majestic Moa in New Zealand (Flannery, 1994. p.195-198), to what has become known as the “Great Megafauna Extinction Debate” (Flannery, 1994. p.180). Which brings the reader to the message of the book, what Tim Flannery is trying to tell us. The Future Eaters describes the coming of man as the death of many of Australia’s unique flora and fauna, the most prominent being the Diprotodon and other large marsupials that once roamed the lands of Australia (Flannery, 1994. p.180-186). Theses extinctions that have occurred on both Australia and New Zealand have been credited to the arrival of man, according to Flannery (Flannery, 1994. p.136-292). This ‘destruction’ of the native species continued on with arrival of Europeans in Australia and, according to Flannery is still continuing, but with a little education, sustainable living and with an understanding to biodiversity and the importance of nature there is hope yet (Flannery, 1994. p.376-406).

The importance of the message that Tim Flannery is giving is that although there have been many mistakes made and those mistakes were done in times when the need to survive was more important that the need to preserve biodiversity, it is now clear that we have to do something to halt or even reverse any more damage done to biodiversity and the environment. An example of a land in recent history that did not heed the warning signs of environmental degradation is Easter Island. In his book, A Green History of the World, Ponting explains the history of Easter Island and what has happened to what was once a civilised society living on Easter Island as a “grim warning to the world.” (Ponting, 1991. p.1) When the first Europeans arrived they found a people who were thought to be primitive and living in poverty and backward conditions, which was an enigma when all around there were signs of an advance society capable of carving the magnificent monuments that has made Easter Island so famous. Ponting explains, The history of Easter Island is not one of lost civilisation and esoteric knowledge. Rather it is a striking example of the dependence of human societies on their environment and of the consequences of irreversibly damaging that environment. When it could no longer withstand the pressure, the society that had been painfully built up over the previous thousands of years fell with it. (Ponting, 1991. p. 2)

This collapse of a whole society and the key to understanding what actually happened is explained as “massive degradation brought on by deforestation of the whole island.” (Ponting, 1991. p. 5) The vital and limited resources of Easter Island were gradually consumed until those resources were no more. This is the message that The Future Eaters is trying to tell us, “the Earth has only limited resources to support human society and all its demands.” (Ponting, 1991. p.7)

With this in mind many have sought to argue that Tim Flannery has caused a reaction, which is described by Horton, in his reply to The Future Eaters, “akin to a religious movement where a charismatic leader speaks and his words are beyond question.” (Horton, 2000. p.17) Horton’s The Pure State of Nature: Sacred cows, destructive myths and the environment, describes Flannery’s theory as questioning the intelligence of Australian native animals which are relatively dumb and are therefore easy to kill and that is why so many of them are now extinct and because now there were no more animals eating grass, the grass then grew and thus fires started burning causing a change in vegetation patterns which then caused a change in the climate and the Aboriginals learnt, in order to cope with the changes how to make fire to control the environment to meet their needs, and so too should we (Horton, 2000. p.17). Horton disagrees with this theory, stating that Aborigines did not cause extinctions and the extinctions did not happen soon after the arrival of humans and extinction do not cause changes in length of grass, so fire was not a result of these extinctions. He does concede however that Aborigines did set out to manage the land with fire, but did so in line with Australia’s natural fire regime (Horton, 2000. p.17). Finally, Horton suggests that Flannery’s image of the whole of Australia being a giant Diprotodon paradise where all the large animals just stood still waiting for these strange creature called humans to kill them off, is wrong (Horton, 2000. p.116).

Another critic of The Future Eaters is seen in Natural Gain: In the grazing lands of southern Australia, by David Smith. In this book the argument by Flannery of future eating is questioned. This altering of the future by humans is understood by Smith through his grasp of Flannery’s theory as Aborigines, in the absence of predators did not have a concept of management of the animal population so that their numbers could be preserved. He states that Flannery moves away from other theories regarding extinction, not just in Australasia, but worldwide. To a certain extent The Future Eaters attributes extinction to the arrival of humans and not the more traditionally held view, that being catastrophic climatic changes (Smith, 2000. p.13). Smith see the arrival of humans as not a form of future eating but he explains they should be seen as the arrival of a new organism and to balance nature they are also part of the inevitable evolutionary change and that humans only contributed to this evolution of change (Smith, 2000. p.13).

Australia is the last large landmass to be “globalised biologically” and future eating was not restricted to only humans. Flannery considers them a feature of new form of existence of many creatures that when moved out their natural environment contributes to this future eating, and plants were not left out of the argument. With the nutrient levels being so low this has resulted in organisms working together to distribute the available resources. Therefore, future eating is described as a characteristic of the Australian environment because there has been an evolution of animals that require little energy (Smith, 2000. p.13). Bob Crocker as cited in Smith, opposed Tim Flannery’s view explaining that the future as one of “dynamic opportunity” and the post-Miocene climate produced new ecological situations. As an ecologist Crocker saw the land of Australia as not a static system but one that could be improved (Smith, 2000. p.23).

While there have been many who disagree with Tim Flannery, there too have been some who agree. There is agreement that rapid extinctions of some species occurred after human arrival and colonization but the reasons and cause are yet to be decided upon (Brook and Bowman, 2004).

Whatever the argument, one thing is true, “human actions have shaped the environment in which successive generations and different societies have lived. The driving force behind many of these actions has been simple” it is the need to survive (Ponting, 1991. p.141). With this in mind Tim Flannery has tried to open our eyes, so to speak, in order for Australians to gain a better understanding of what it is that has shaped our country and its inhabitants and also what we have to look forward to. If something is not done to stop the destruction of the environment, then in fact the future may be ‘eaten’! Flannery, in the closing explains, that “despite all of our advantages-our technology and our intellect-we seem to have made as disastrous a series of mistakes as any other species.” (Flannery, 1994. p.406)

In conclusion, I would like to thank Professor Flannery for what was a remarkable and enjoyable read. I certainly have gained a better understanding of what we have to look forward to if indeed we do not take heed and keep on the path of destruction. The Future Eaters declares, “the single most important factor in restoring biological stability to Australasia is consideration of the total human population that the various lands can support.” (Flannery, 1994. p. 374) And economic growth can occur without increased demand of the resources available, especially as growth is seen as an inevitably positive outcome (Flannery, 1994. p. 375).

Many scientific men know perfectly well you are right, but will not say so, and so you have to fight against the hordes of ignorance practically alone. Anonymous (Flannery, 1994. p.366).

References

Brook, B.W. and Bowman, D.M. 2004. Journal of Biogeography: The Uncertain Blitzkrieg of Pleistocene Megafauna. Vol. 31, number 4, April 2004, p. 517-523. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/expand?pub=infobike://bsc/jbiog/2004/00000031/0000000.htp Accessed 24/10/06. Flannery, T. 1994. The Future Eaters. Reed New Holland, French’s Forest NSW. Horton, D. 2000. The Pure State of Nature: Scared cows, destructive myths and the environment. Allen Unwin, St Leonards, NSW. p.17, 80,116. Ponting, C. 1991. A Green History of the World: The environment and the collapse of great civilisations. Penguin Books, New York, USA. p.1, 2,3,5,7,141,153 Smith, D. 2000. Natural Gain: in the grazing lands of Southern Australia. University of New South Wales Press Ltd, Sydney, NSW. p.13, 23.