Jonathan Rosen says that “the Ivory-billed woodpecker has become an emblem of the now vanished American wilderness” (p.66). Even more tragic is that the woodpecker counts as an extinct species due to human behavior (forestation/destruction of the woodpecker’s special habitat) and not as a result of a natural process or a random natural event. If the “Lord God bird” (p.66) is indeed extinct, then men are to blame for it. So the woodpecker is not only an emblem of vanished wilderness but also a symbol of men’s ruthless exposure to nature.
At the same time, the woodpecker presents hope. Hope that the woodpecker is stronger/ more adaptable than expected and could survive somewhere. And thus the woodpecker also presents hope that men cannot destroy everything (but I’m sure we can), that nature is stronger, or at least that the consequences of human behaviour are not that final and irrevocable as they seem to be. The woodpecker presents the wish that men can recoup what has been done in the past by now protecting and reforesting the woodpecker’s habitat. It is the wish that nature “forgives” us our deeds. So there is this longing for “absolution”. However, this is a pious hope. For me, the woodpecker, or rather, what he represents, is indeed “the Grail” (p.68), a longing for something that can hardly be fulfilled or achieved.
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I agree with you that humans are capable of destroying nearly everything. We are so ruthless when it comes to nature. In many cases nature is not forgiving--we cannot take it for granted because we are usually only given one opportunity. This is a special case where nature has provided us the opportunity to do what we failed to do in the past.
ReplyDeleteHumans can indeed destroy nature but we can just as easily re-evaluate our trajectory and correct it before it spells our own doom. This kind of social evolution is what humans have been relying on to survive since the beginning.
ReplyDeleteDisagree. I don't believe that "we can just as easily re-evaluate our trajectory." It takes a couple of minutes to fell a tree but years over years until a new planted tree grows and becomes as strong and mighty as the old one. Not to mention a species definetively extinct.
ReplyDeleteNo offense, just my opinion.