Jul 30 2008
Finding a Slapdash Sense in Nature
As I have argued and will continue to argue, nature makes sense. At least if you look at it with an evolutionary perspective. No designer worth his salt would put together such a slapdash, albeit beautiful, mess.
Speaking of salt, let’s add some water and consider my home state’s coastline. Florida has beaches galore. The sandbar state (highest elevation, 200-something feet) is fringed by sand. Which makes the snorkeling boring. Why? Because Gawd failed to design a multitude of colorful, sand-eating, fish. And why not?
Instead, to find a multitude of fish you’ve got to go to environments in which many types of fish can find food and perhaps shelter. Or least nooks and crannies to hide in when a barracuda glides by, licking its chops. Okay, barracudas can’t lick, but they do have quite a set of toothy chops. Which is a pretty good hint as to what’s on their dinner menu.
Coral reefs, and manmade stone jumbles such as the nearby jetty I sometimes snorkel around, are a different matter.
As with fish-watching, the same goes with birdwatching. Suburbia is by-and-large boring place to go birding. Why? The vegetative monoculture of lawn after lawn after lawn. And pesticide use that keeps the bugs away which keeps the eaters of bugs away, etc.
If you want to attract wildlife, provide food and shelter and they will come. Add time and they just might evolve.
