Loss

Loss is  “The condition of being deprived or bereaved of something or someone” as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Loss is emptiness, a lack of fulfillment. This can present itself in many forms, but the most compelling is how it relates to our lack of knowledge of our history, and the history of biodiversity on the planet. When history is erased, because it is not remembered or recorded, people have no sense of how others overcame obstacles, where others came from, or a sense of legacy. People’s connection to the past has been severely severed and sometimes lost entirely. This disconnection from and loss of the past can distort the truth because it leaves large holes in our understanding of ourselves and the natural world in which we were born into and struggle to navigate in, and identify with.  

Elizabeth Kolbert refers to the idea of loss, specifically in the context of the mass extinctions of species in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. People do not nor will never understand the level of biodiversity that exists and existed because there is no way to keep track of all the extinctions that have been and continue to be caused by humans. Species are dying off at a faster rate than people can name them. At the same time, there is little guilt or sense of responsibility attached to these acts of widespread and extreme destruction. People fail to understand the significance of these animals and the extent to which people have negatively impacted the lives of these creatures they “share” the planet with. Kolbert asserts that many are unaware of the variety of species that inhabit this planet and the speed and degree to which they are becoming extinct:

Griffith said that he thought there were probably many other amphibian species that had been missed in the initial collecting rush for EVACC and had since vanished; it was hard to say how many, since most of them were probably unknown to science. ‘Unfortunately,’ he told me, ‘we are losing all these amphibians before we even know they exist. (Kolbert 10)

People cannot fully comprehend the extent of loss to the ecosystems and the effects and ramifications of these disappearances. How can people connect and relate to species that they did not know existed? Kolbert discusses how humyn’s[1] lapse in awareness of and identification with other animals is a main reason it is so easy for people to wipe out and neglect creatures that have lived on the earth much longer than humyns.

People do not fully appreciate or understand their role in the erasure of the earth’s history. There are psychological barriers that prevent people from internalizing the scope of the loss of the natural aspect of our lives. Animals are being discovered in bones, bits, and pieces. Humyn-made climate change is causing the sixth extinction- a loss that would eliminate twenty to fifty percent of all living species on earth within this century. This loss or absence of meaning, history, and understanding of these species leads to a confusion and disconnection with how people see themselves and their connection to these animals and life forms.

Kolbert refers to a separation between perception and truth. People’s lack of knowledge due to what people do not see leads to misunderstanding. Mary Louise Pratt in “Arts of the Contact Zone,” explains how there is a misrepresentation and loss when the words are not generated from the source or/and are influenced by outsiders: “Miscomprehension, incomprehension, dead letters unread masterpieces, absolute heterogeneity of meaning-these are some of the perils of writing in the contact zone” (Pratt 37). When species are erased, and we do not have the hard copy of their footprint to view and see for ourselves, part of their history and purpose is lost. We cannot observe them actively and see their change. Instead we are given a small insight through fossils that do not sufficiently represent them and their significance. With the erasure of their impression, we loose our previous connection with these species, and therefore our connections to our pasts.

When people only see pieces of species, parts of animal kingdoms, they are required to draw conclusions based on wedges of reality. As the past becomes erased through extinctions and rapid ecological change so does people’s knowledge of themselves, their species, and those they live beside. People are destroying vital links between humans, humans and nature, and different aspects of nature that may never be fully or partly explored.

People can only understand slices of the past because that is all that remains for them to explore and discover. Minnie Bruce Pratt in “Identity: Skin, Blood, Heart,” explains how she was affected by what she missed or failed to notice: “I was shaped by what I didn’t see, or didn’t notice, on those streets” (Pratt 17). People are only presented a partial view of life and ecosystems based on what they notice and what remains. People’s ideas and conceptions of the environment are extremely limited because they do not feel a connection to their surroundings because they rarely interact with them on an equal level. This disconnection manifests itself in a profound sense of loss and deprivation from many of life’s complexities and diversity.

            This loss also comes in another form, which is erasure. Animals and plants are disappearing without a trace. People are changing the environmental conditions on the planet so quickly and to such a great extent that many species cannot adapt. Kolbert points to people’s lack of knowledge of the kinds and the amounts of animals that live in the rainforest. The extinctions and negative impacts of humans are irreversible and something great and indefinable will never be appreciated or fully grasped due to the extinctions they are causing.  

There is a legacy that is being lost through these mass extinctions. Ruth Ozeki also explores the significance of loss, particularly in regards to plants:

I don’t know whether you care or not, but some of these seeds could be the last specimens of their kind left on the planet!... They’re saving these plants from extinction. It’s such crucial work! We’ve got to help stop the genetic erosion of the earth’s ecosystem. We’ve got to act now! (Ozeki 162).

Ruth Ozeki clearly demonstrates how everything in life is interconnected. Small changes, such as the disappearance of seeds, cause domino effects for people’s livelihood and income. In All Over Creation, people, especially Momoko and Lloyd, lose their connection to their land and their past as their crops and flowers die off.      Another definition of loss by the Merriam Webster Dictionary involves a robbing of identity: “the experience of having something taken from you or destroyed” (Merriam Webster 1). Especially for Momoko and Lloyd, their identities are interwoven with their land and “home.” Kolbert describes how many species struggle to relocate to new habitats, but are forced to because of accelerated ecological changes. Animals’ lands are being stolen by people who are creating artificial barriers such as roadways and urban sprawl, but also by climate change and transportation. Kolbert sites many examples of animals being taken from their “homes” and being transported to new, unfamiliar environments that they struggle to adapt to; rats came with early Polynesian settlers in the Pacific.

The environment of these animals is deeply connected to their way of life, what they eat, and restricts and defines their species. According to Kolbert, people are transporting 10,000 species a day around the world. People are changing the legacies and identities of these animals by distorting and restricting their environments. People are deciding the outcomes of thousands of species and robbing their lands.

            Since people’s lives are so dependent and intertwined with species that are predicted to and are becoming extinct, people are constantly losing parts of themselves with the deaths of these creatures. Species’ extinctions are deeply connected to people’s extinction and survival. “A sign in the Hall of Biodiversity offers a quote from the Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich: IN PUSHING OTHER SPECIES TO EXTINCTION, HUMANITY IS BUSY SAWING OFF THE LIMB ON WHICH IT PERCHES” (Kolbert 268). Kolbert claims that life is resilient, but also has limits. Whether people are concerned or not, they are losing a sense of what is “real” and “natural,” by divorcing and taking advantage of their natural surroundings. We are destroying the roots of the systems that drive our survival. Therefore, we are consciously and unconsciously erasing our own histories and what makes us human.

Loss and extinctions can change perceptions of history because they involve the removal of significant pieces in the puzzle of the understanding people’s legacy and what defines humans. We are missing key ingredients in our own recipe. This “failure to keep or to continue to have something”[2] can misconstrue what we see and how we perceive the world. Our identities and those of the natural world cannot be accurately expressed because we are not fully aware of them or have the ability to comprehend them as they are. We are defined by what we are searching for, fail to perceive and explain, and what we presume is the truth.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. New York: Henry Holt,    2014. Print.

"Loss." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Ozeki, Ruth L. All over Creation. New York: Viking, 2003. Print.

Pratt, Mary L. Arts of the Contact Zone. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1991. PDF.

Pratt, Minnie Bruce. “Identity: Skin, Blood, Heart.” Feminist Theory Reader: Local and   Global Perspectives. 2nd ed. Ed. Carole McCann & Seung-kyung Kim. New       York: Routledge, 2010. 263–269.