136
One constellation of examples has been beautifully laid out in that great summary, Insects and Flowers, by Friedrich G. Barth.
3
Aside from reminding us that the
Biblical manna from heaven is actually the excretion (“chemically modified form”)
of various “aphids and scale insects,”
4
Barth’s reflections upon “directed evolution”
5
and “selection pressure”
6
manifest striking industrial-like metaphors in the guise of
“guide marks,” “pollen models,” and other strategies employed by flower species as
diverse as “Foxglove,” “Alpine butterwort,” “Common toadflax,” and Broomrape”
7
to better ensure the phenomenal hunter/gatherer successes of bumblebees, as one
case. Barth suggests a colony of “60,000 workers” and brings to bear data on the
“0.0021 g per animal per flight” of sugar; subtracting the “0.027 g brought back,”
the net gains, and the extrapolation to an astonishing “18 liters of honey” production
per day by an entire colony.
8
Quite an impressive manufacturing success story that
begs the question of where it is all leading to the Jewish Promised Land of Canaan,
“flowing with milk and honey”; and a variety of commentaries on sacred wild bees,
and deification of nature in Babylonian and Egyptian texts.
9
Whether cyanobacteria, bees, or beavers, all such industry courts an obviously devastating dichotomy when taken to human levels. Its causes and consequences have been graphically assessed, particularly by such historians as Clarence
J. Glacken. When discussing Renaissance theologians like John Ray on the topic of
natural destruction, Glacken makes clear that Ray (and so many of his contemporaries) “rejected the belief in the exhaustion and dissolution of the world on philosophic, religious, and scientific grounds.”
10
There was no reason, it would seem, to
believe that the robust action of pollinators and the animated presence of livestock
under human dominion were not eternal facts of life. Yet, in our time, “A total shutdown of the thermohaline circulation is considered extremely unlikely in the coming century,” wrote Elizabeth Kolbert in 2006. Adding, “But, if the Greenland ice
sheet were to start to disintegrate, the possibility of such a shutdown could not be
ruled out”
11
(Fig. 15.1).
3 Insects and Flowers – The Biology of a Partnership, Translated by M. A. Biederman-Thorson,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1985.
4 ibid., p. 83.
5 ibid., p. 263.
6 ibid., p. 265.
7 ibid., p. 125.
8 ibid., pp. 245–246.
9 See Exodus 3.8, The Holy Bible Containing The Old And New Testaments, Authorized King
James Version, The Christian Science Publishing Society, Boston, Mass., (*See “Why Milk and
Honey?” by Jonathan Cohen, Stony Brook University, n.d., p.83; also see https://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/m&h.html, Accessed March 18, 2019.
10 Traces on the Rhodian Shore – Nature And Culture In Western Thought From Ancient Times To
The End Of The Eighteenth Century, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles,
1967, p. 415.
11 Field Notes from a Catastrophe – Man, Nature, And Climate Change, by Elizabeth Kolbert,
Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, p. 57.
15 The Evolution of Innocence and Strategy
One constellation of examples has been beautifully laid out in that great summary, Insects and Flowers, by Friedrich G. Barth.
3
Aside from reminding us that the
Biblical manna from heaven is actually the excretion (“chemically modified form”)
of various “aphids and scale insects,”
4
Barth’s reflections upon “directed evolution”
5
and “selection pressure”
6
manifest striking industrial-like metaphors in the guise of
“guide marks,” “pollen models,” and other strategies employed by flower species as
diverse as “Foxglove,” “Alpine butterwort,” “Common toadflax,” and Broomrape”
7
to better ensure the phenomenal hunter/gatherer successes of bumblebees, as one
case. Barth suggests a colony of “60,000 workers” and brings to bear data on the
“0.0021 g per animal per flight” of sugar; subtracting the “0.027 g brought back,”
the net gains, and the extrapolation to an astonishing “18 liters of honey” production
per day by an entire colony.
8
Quite an impressive manufacturing success story that
begs the question of where it is all leading to the Jewish Promised Land of Canaan,
“flowing with milk and honey”; and a variety of commentaries on sacred wild bees,
and deification of nature in Babylonian and Egyptian texts.
9
Whether cyanobacteria, bees, or beavers, all such industry courts an obviously devastating dichotomy when taken to human levels. Its causes and consequences have been graphically assessed, particularly by such historians as Clarence
J. Glacken. When discussing Renaissance theologians like John Ray on the topic of
natural destruction, Glacken makes clear that Ray (and so many of his contemporaries) “rejected the belief in the exhaustion and dissolution of the world on philosophic, religious, and scientific grounds.”
10
There was no reason, it would seem, to
believe that the robust action of pollinators and the animated presence of livestock
under human dominion were not eternal facts of life. Yet, in our time, “A total shutdown of the thermohaline circulation is considered extremely unlikely in the coming century,” wrote Elizabeth Kolbert in 2006. Adding, “But, if the Greenland ice
sheet were to start to disintegrate, the possibility of such a shutdown could not be
ruled out”
11
(Fig. 15.1).
3 Insects and Flowers – The Biology of a Partnership, Translated by M. A. Biederman-Thorson,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1985.
4 ibid., p. 83.
5 ibid., p. 263.
6 ibid., p. 265.
7 ibid., p. 125.
8 ibid., pp. 245–246.
9 See Exodus 3.8, The Holy Bible Containing The Old And New Testaments, Authorized King
James Version, The Christian Science Publishing Society, Boston, Mass., (*See “Why Milk and
Honey?” by Jonathan Cohen, Stony Brook University, n.d., p.83; also see https://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/m&h.html, Accessed March 18, 2019.
10 Traces on the Rhodian Shore – Nature And Culture In Western Thought From Ancient Times To
The End Of The Eighteenth Century, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles,
1967, p. 415.
11 Field Notes from a Catastrophe – Man, Nature, And Climate Change, by Elizabeth Kolbert,
Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, p. 57.
15 The Evolution of Innocence and Strategy