A review of the talk by member Croy Thomson – 14.01.26
When future fossileers dig into our era, what will they find? What conclusions might they reach and what lessons might they apply to their own world? (All this assumes there will still be human life left on Earth, in the far future: it’s not a given, just ask the dinosaurs.)
Professor Williams delivered a clearly spoken, well-paced, well-illustrated, thought-provoking lecture. In quietly evangelical style he informed the audience that times are definitely a’changing, and it’s not all good news – certainly not for the one million species presently in danger of extinction. However, if we can adjust our gluttonous, selfish, complacent ways we might survive. Us and the cockroaches.
Humankind is inflicting on the biosphere a mainly negative disruption, and we’ve been going at it since the 18th Century Industrial Revolution, including our exploding of atomic bombs (“We have left a radioactive marker all over the planet … but it gives a good marker for fossil studies!”). On a more humdrumstick level we’re heaping up vast quantities of chicken bones (the broiler chicken is now by far the most populous bird on the globe: there’s over 26 billion of them and 70% of all birds are chickens). We’re also creating layers of concrete and “technofossils” such as plastics. Not to mention the acreage devoted to cemeteries. Grave news indeed.
We are translocating creatures and plants into places they’ve previously never been seen. The Clyde Estuary is now home to Chinese Mitten Crabs; San Francisco Bay hosts Manila Clams deposited in the ballast water of international containers ships; hippos are thriving in Columbia (thank you, drugs baron Pablo Escobar – the original four hippos escaped his private zoo and there’s now over 100). Closer to home, the River Soar in Leicestershire shelters invasive East Asian Snails. Then there’s the ubiquitous avocado pit, found these days where no avocado plant has ever grown. If that doesn’t mystify future fossil hunters, nothing will. We are homogenising the planet and, beaten only by the asteroid impact of 66 million years ago, we are the second fastest disruptors of the biosphere. Humanity’s reshaping of eco-processes is “almost irreversible”.
Can we slow our plunge towards mass extinction? Yes, we could consume less (“we consume with impunity”), recycle more, consume from within more local biospheres (do you really need those blueberries from Peru, or the plastic packaging?). We could rewild gardens, and catch more water on rooftops. And composted chicken bones can be transformed into food … “but isn’t all this simply the chickens coming home to roost?” (credit Council Member Richard Service).
As ever, the big solution is to “Educate, educate, educate” in our schools, and lay down a fertile stratum of knowledge. Said Professor Williams, perhaps in an echo of the skipper of the Titanic, “I am optimistic we can turn things around, but we have to be quick.”
Audience questions included, “On finding immense amounts of chicken bones, will fossil hunters think that chickens were the dominant species?” The presence of the marks of knives and forks on the chicken bones should give the lie to that. Also consider, “Does survival of the fittest mean that one species will wipe out all others?” Unlikely: the survival of a species usually depends on the survival of other species. We are interdependent.
Chair Campbell Forrest thanked Mark and presented him with that most precious of future fossils – a Society paperweight. We went home without stopping for a KFC.
Mark Williams is Professor of Paleobiology at the University of Leicester. He researches and teaches Earth evolution, palaeontology, climate and environmental change, with a particular interest in the Anthropocene. He is an author and has worked on all continents. The talk is available online.