729
80.3 A Paean to the Earthworm
Any farmer, or soil scientist, will at once know that humans and worms, particularly
more than 1800 species of, specifically, earthworms, are intimately related in ways
not readily subject to reason or direct understanding. Empathy, food, the seasons,
our synthetic chemical adulterants like DDT, all underscore what Virgil wrote in his
Georgics (29 BC) that “Not every soil can bear all things” (Book II, 109). And
inversely, as Michel Eyquem de Montaigne said in his Essays (1580), “Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens” (Book I, Ch. 12). In the sordid case of the Netherlands as of October 2014,
there were a known “250,000 sites” “showing various degrees of soil pollution”.
24
With the largest number of farm animals per capita and per kilometer in all of
Europe, “the Dutch [are] lagging behind their European peers for quality of air, soil
and surface water, stuck in fossil-fuel dependency, and with exceptionally high carbon emissions”.
25
All of this is deadly to earthworms. Tens of thousands of worms are considered
to be parasites by our kind, such as tapeworms, along with over 7.5 million other
known parasitic species on the planet. But, as the growing Anthropocene has previewed, at least half of these, in recent new studies, are predicted to go extinct in
coming decades. This may pose one of the most disturbing of all ecosystem annihilatory patterns currently projected.
26
At the same time, researchers with the Canadian
Forest Service in Victoria, British Columbia, have sounded the alarm on the humble
earthworm’s involvement in the climate crisis.
27
The worm that ultimately devours
all things is not our enemy, to repeat. The paradox of the worm is that it equals the
equal sign in terms of computational ecology. The possessor of all things, eschewing
nothing, accumulating in its neural repository the sensation and history of the earth
like few other organisms.
In sub-Saharan Africa, noted for its sandy, worm-rarified soils, current tests on
drought-resistant subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) are being undertaken in eight countries that see the potential to revivify crop root zones and the
depauperate yields of smallholder, impoverished farmers. Some have argued that
such a new “green revolution” could “capture some 15 million tons of carbon in 20
24 See “Environmental Data Compendium, Number of Contaminated Sites; inventory October
2014,” Government of the Netherlands, https://www.clo.nl/en/indicators/en025816-number-ofcontaminated-sites-inventory%2D%2Doctober2014, Accessed January 19, 2020; See also, “Dirty
Dikes – The green image of the Dutch is at odds with the reality,” The Economist, February 4,
2012, https://www.economist.com/europe/2012/02/04/dirty-dikes, Accessed January 19, 2020.
25 ibid.
26 See The Smithsonian Magazine, “The World’s Parasites Are Going Extinct,” by Ben Panko,
September 7, 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/parasites-are-going-extinctheres-why-thats-a-bad-thing-180964808/. Accessed January 19, 2020.
27 “`Earthworm Dilemma,’ a new carbon effect, May 26, 2019, Antelope Valley Press, https://www.
avpress.com/opinion/editorial/earthworm-dilemma-a-new-carbon-effect/article_a902fe1c-7f5b11e9-a2d4-8fd068e43202.html. Accessed January 19, 2020.
80.3 A Paean to the Earthworm
80.3 A Paean to the Earthworm
Any farmer, or soil scientist, will at once know that humans and worms, particularly
more than 1800 species of, specifically, earthworms, are intimately related in ways
not readily subject to reason or direct understanding. Empathy, food, the seasons,
our synthetic chemical adulterants like DDT, all underscore what Virgil wrote in his
Georgics (29 BC) that “Not every soil can bear all things” (Book II, 109). And
inversely, as Michel Eyquem de Montaigne said in his Essays (1580), “Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens” (Book I, Ch. 12). In the sordid case of the Netherlands as of October 2014,
there were a known “250,000 sites” “showing various degrees of soil pollution”.
24
With the largest number of farm animals per capita and per kilometer in all of
Europe, “the Dutch [are] lagging behind their European peers for quality of air, soil
and surface water, stuck in fossil-fuel dependency, and with exceptionally high carbon emissions”.
25
All of this is deadly to earthworms. Tens of thousands of worms are considered
to be parasites by our kind, such as tapeworms, along with over 7.5 million other
known parasitic species on the planet. But, as the growing Anthropocene has previewed, at least half of these, in recent new studies, are predicted to go extinct in
coming decades. This may pose one of the most disturbing of all ecosystem annihilatory patterns currently projected.
26
At the same time, researchers with the Canadian
Forest Service in Victoria, British Columbia, have sounded the alarm on the humble
earthworm’s involvement in the climate crisis.
27
The worm that ultimately devours
all things is not our enemy, to repeat. The paradox of the worm is that it equals the
equal sign in terms of computational ecology. The possessor of all things, eschewing
nothing, accumulating in its neural repository the sensation and history of the earth
like few other organisms.
In sub-Saharan Africa, noted for its sandy, worm-rarified soils, current tests on
drought-resistant subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) are being undertaken in eight countries that see the potential to revivify crop root zones and the
depauperate yields of smallholder, impoverished farmers. Some have argued that
such a new “green revolution” could “capture some 15 million tons of carbon in 20
24 See “Environmental Data Compendium, Number of Contaminated Sites; inventory October
2014,” Government of the Netherlands, https://www.clo.nl/en/indicators/en025816-number-ofcontaminated-sites-inventory%2D%2Doctober2014, Accessed January 19, 2020; See also, “Dirty
Dikes – The green image of the Dutch is at odds with the reality,” The Economist, February 4,
2012, https://www.economist.com/europe/2012/02/04/dirty-dikes, Accessed January 19, 2020.
25 ibid.
26 See The Smithsonian Magazine, “The World’s Parasites Are Going Extinct,” by Ben Panko,
September 7, 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/parasites-are-going-extinctheres-why-thats-a-bad-thing-180964808/. Accessed January 19, 2020.
27 “`Earthworm Dilemma,’ a new carbon effect, May 26, 2019, Antelope Valley Press, https://www.
avpress.com/opinion/editorial/earthworm-dilemma-a-new-carbon-effect/article_a902fe1c-7f5b11e9-a2d4-8fd068e43202.html. Accessed January 19, 2020.
80.3 A Paean to the Earthworm