Knowing Neighbors

Whole Earth, Fall, 2000 by Pw

INTRODUCTION TO THE ALL SPECIES INVENTORY ISSUE

In Kenya, the vervet monkeys that roamed my camp chirped and barked pragmatic and emotional species names: one vocalization for danger above (an eagle), which might also mean "head for the bushes;" another for danger about (leopard or cheetah), which might also mean "head for a tree"; and one for ground danger below (boa constrictor), which might also mean "flee or mob, but pay careful careful careful attention." The vocalizations varied from group to group, but in each group the three "species" were "codified" in sound. Humans, apparently just like vervets, can't resist observing, memorizing, and uttering distinctions. It's a long primate tradition.

When Kevin Kelly mentioned his idea to launch a project to observe and name all the planet's species, I smiled. Great! Throw that Big Idea at the world. Push our natural tendencies to the limit. Know thy neighbors, all of them; all of them on the planet. What a whimsical, quixotic, and daydreamy idea! The proposal reminded me of the first photos of the Earth from outer space, which served as Whole Earth's long-term icon. The NASA photo of our suspended blue planet didn't have an agenda. It just made you think and wonder. Contemplating "Lifeboat Earth" from the opposite end of the spectrum-invisible microbes, jellyfish, blue whales, and redwoods-demands millions of images, rather than one. Beguiled, Whole Earth is devoting over fifty pages to deliberating the first broad-based attempt (not located exclusively within the academic/scientific community) to ferret out and describe life on Earth, without arrogance or possessiveness or sacrilege.

Disclaimer: This issue does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the All Species Foundation (page 9)--though hats off to its board members (Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, Terry Erwin, and Ryan Phelan) as our most important immediate influences. The dialog that they started with a couple dozen scientists and friends was of huge help (page 105).

THE DREAM: A "BESTIARY" OF WORLD SPECIES

The dream is to create a contemporary, dynamic bestiary, with updateable descriptions and images of all the planet's life-forms: micro and quasi-micro, fungi, animals, and plants. The first step is to seriously work on Earth's Life List. Some taxonomists guess how many species belong to a family or kingdom by "feel" from their own experience with journals and fieldwork, bargaining with colleagues about what is "reasonable," given habitats and the quality of taxonomic classification. Known as the "Delphi" method, after the oracle, competing bioprophet predictions range from 15 million to 100 million total species. Other bio-diviners make ratios from geographic areas they know and extend them to the planet. For instance, working estimates of fungi come from comparing the number of plants to the number of fungi known in well-studied England (about 6 to 1), then extrapolating to the whole planet (polar regions and ocean included). Still other life listers like graphs. They chart how many species have been collected over the years. If it's fewer and fewer each year, they assume that there are fewer and fewer to be found.

THREE MINI-SECTIONS

In this issue, we explore the all species Life List in three steps. Step One, "Discover," occurs outdoors. Wild explorers, indigenous guides, curious taxonomists, and new teams of parataxonomists (page 28) scout, spot, sample, and collect the elusive beasts. Our rallying cry: Bring back natural history; the joys and stories of discovery (pages 13 to 37)! Step Two, "Describe," occurs indoors, in the lab, museum, or herbarium, where techies and specialists look for details that distinguish one life-form from another and portray them with text and images. The indoor rallying cry: Rejuvenate the art of describing life-forms (pages 38 to 49); make the profession once again honorable and envied. Finally, in Step Three, "Preserve and Cross-Reference," the now-described life-forms become vouchers in collections, and are cataloged (online, on CD-ROMs, or on paper) so that others can find out what has been done (pages 50-57). Each easily referenced species can attract active fans to protect it and spread news about it to the world at large. The rallying cry: Meld the best of planetary ecology with the best of digital technology (page 50).

Inspired by the all species inventory, we foretell new forms of globalocalism-decentralized academic science, with more local citizen scientists (page 28); natural history re-embedded in the institutions and cultures of former colonies, and--actually and virtually--the return of silently stolen knowledge back to its ecoregion (page 50).

PERSONAL CHOICES

As I wander through conservation battles, I find myself and friends stretched between three stances: the warrior protecting the planet, the poet-priest celebrating Earth as a never-ending blessing, and the scientist pursuing Earth knowledge. All three possess powers that can change the world. Sometimes while presenting scientific data about endangered squirrels or unclassified ground beetles, I know in my heart that no amount of information will change the minds of the habitat destroyers. I yearn to chain myself to a tree, preferring the role of naturalist gladiator to rational arbitrator of knowledge. Sometimes I envision (or accomplish) leaping from my chair, running to the boonies without binoculars or field guides (without even my glasses), to honor the myriad life-forms and recite poetry to the winds, finding solace in the priestly naturalist-poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins: "Glory be to God for dappled things/For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow/For rose-moles all a stipple upon trout that swim ..."