Mutuality is the key to our survival

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

World Population Day has been observed on July 11 since 1990 and looks at urgent population issues. As our human numbers head for 10 billion by 2050, it’s time we affirmed the rights of other populations as well. We have lost much of our wildlife as a result of industrialisation and thoughtless practices.

We all know that bees in particular are in global decline, but entomologists are sounding the alarm more and more frequently that insects in general need to be protected and respected. We can help with this in our backyards and gardens.

Sometimes doing less has many benefits. Sometimes technology just can’t measure up, and the speed that a gadget gives us to, say, cut the grass or blow the leaves into a pile leaves us worse off. Not cutting the grass in the month of May, as has been encouraged in Toronto to bring back the endangered bumble bee population there, has been successful in giving embattled bees a breathing space at the most critical time of the year. [tinyurl.com/ no-mow-may]

In fact, simply not cutting our lawns, as well as enjoying the colours of autumn spread across our yards, has huge benefits both for us and for our animal friends’ health.

It has been estimated that lawns in the U.S. take up a staggering 40.5 million acres of land, on top of which they waste huge quantities of precious water, and here in Québec we’re perpetuating that same monoculture of importing turf, thereby increasing pollution, and adding to our toxic load with the insecticides and herbicides applied to those lawns. Climate breakdown is accelerating, and diverse habitats are being increasingly marginalized. A 2019 paper written by scientists at Université du Québec à Trois-rivières found that intensively managed lawns have been shown to have clear negative ecological effects for pollinators.

Dan Kraus, a senior conservation biologist at the Nature Conservancy of Canada, said recently, “Trying to increase the diversity of your lawn is actually a great idea because it really is one of the largest areas of vegetation that’s within most of our urban areas. Backyard animals, such as toads, frogs and many pollinators, once lived in forests and have adapted to hibernate under leaves. The leaves provide an insulating blanket that can help protect these animals from very cold temperatures and temperature fluctuations during the winter.” Leaves that are not raked in autumn break down; and besides giving shelter to many creatures, they create a carbon sink because the soil sequesters some of that leaf decomposition.

Thus soil fertility, biodiversity and human survival can be celebrated in that microcosm called a backyard garden or in an urban meadow that was once a lawn.

Twelve years ago I worked for an ecological charity that was committed to having more lawns be transformed into gardens or mini-meadows. People were encouraged to replace gas and electric mowers with push mowers. We succeeded in creating two organic community gardens as well. It is common knowledge that gas mowers are horrible. Their pollution includes noise levels as well as exhaust fumes. [tinyurl. com/push-mowers]

Besides all the unnecessary boring work of sitting on a ride-on mower or walking behind a toxic brew of pollutants once a week, not cutting a lawn is a pathway to exploration for the whole family. Better still, why not replace your lawn with an organic garden, which will be both productive for you and supportive of insects?

Here’s an adventure that happened to me this week. While I was gardening with a friend, he pointed out to me some magnificent striped caterpillars on the fennel plants. Their amazing life metamorphosis starts with a tiny egg on a leaf, and over the weeks this magically becomes a black swallowtail butterfly. I didn’t specifically grow fennel, parsnip and parsley this summer to give this caterpillar a feeding ground, but I will in the future. Most amazingly, it is the odour of the plants that attracts the butterfly to lay her eggs on the fennel. No manicured lawn is as cool as that! Nature can, if we are willing, educate us every day. A sense of wonder needn’t end with childhood.

Of course, other kinds of habitat are welcomed by various creatures. Even a small pond will give frogs, fish and insects a refuge. A bird bath will entertain humans while birds revel in its water.

World Population Day this Saturday is definitely a time to ponder a multitude of concerns facing human society, but by broadening our traditional scope on population and embracing the critical need to cherish other beings’ right to life we may solve all the population crises.

My cat, Sully, tells me it’s time for our holidays. Be back September 11.

To contact Douglas Nadler for feedback or story ideas email celebrateearth@yahoo.ca.