The Circle of Life

Modern ecologists make some very interesting points. They talk about the world in terms of biomes, of ecosystems, and of interacting organisms. Biomes contain ecosystems which contain organism. The biosphere is the total of the living systems on the planet. Within an ecosystem, plants photosynthesise to produce carbohydrates and other substances, some of which are then consumed by primary consumers; those in turn may be eaten by secondary consumers, and sometimes there may be another level above that. For example, grass is eaten by rabbits which are predated by hawks. When creatures die, they are consumed by other creatures, ultimately bacteria, which return the chemical components to the soil as nutrients. This point is also made quite poignantly in the Lion King, the opening song being The Circle of Life.

When humans exploit natural resources with little or no regard for the circle, or more accurately, web, of life, they can cause the impoverishment or even collapse of ecosystems. Overfishing in the oceans may even cause the entire biome to shut down. Species are apparently dying off at a rate surpassing that of the major extinction periods in geological history. This is due to human unsympathetic and rather myopic overuse of resources, careless use of toxic substances, introduction of non-native, aggressive species, and so on.