From Staffan Ulfstrand
In his review of Stuart Pimm’s The World According to Pimm
(18 August, p 50),
Fred Pearce complains about the author’s view “that there is a
natural landscape”.
“Now,” continues Pearce, “we are entitled to something more sophisticated.”
While it is true that there is not an ounce of soil that does not bear the stamp
of our species, this should not obscure the fact that there is a considerable
difference in degree of human impact between, say, the Serengeti and Hyde
Park.
It has become fashionable to ignore the fact that global biological diversity
would be greatly reduced if the Serengeti were opened to the same amount of
human influence that has shaped and is maintaining the Park. While Pearce is
right to say that we create as well as destroy, sadly that’s of greater
relevance for rats and weeds than eagles and cheetahs.
Kill the romance of pristine nature, fine—but don’t supplant it with
the romance of human angels creating a new garden of Eden.
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Uppsala, Sweden
