By Mona Alalawi, President of Bahrain Women Association for Human Development
It is impossible to quantify the diversity and plurality of the universe components, as it is much larger and deeper than what we see or realize. Even though it is infinite, and its current elements cannot be enumerated, it is also in constant expansion and development, e.g. the diversity of creatures or food (fruits, vegetables) available today are different than what was once available or what will come in terms of its genes and compositions.
One of the wonders of this universe is the beauty of the balance and interdependence between its various elements, which in one hand, form a homogeneous unit in its entirety yet carry a lot of different details.
The elements of nature are affected by each other, and each has an important role to play, and together they form the splendor and beauty of creation the that goes beyond our senses, whether these components are living things such as plants, wildlife, marine life or non-living things such as carbon, hydrogen, water, soil or others. The interdependence and integration between nature components can be illustrated in simple examples such as when reptiles dig burrows, they help in mixing the surface soil with that nutrient-rich layer at the bottom therefore enriching the soil and increasing the vegetation. Also, microorganisms gets its food by decomposing dead bodies, by this process it also eliminates waste and improve soil fertility that promotes plant growth.
It is a precise relationship engineering in natural life cycles, each of which constitutes a self-contained system and is consistent with other systems in a balanced manner.
The effects of the direct or indirect intervention of humans in nature is observed when they eliminate a certain species or increase its population for commercial or any other reasons, this will certainly lead to severe and prolonged consequences that will affect negatively on the whole natural ecosystem.
For instance, one of the countries fearing the wolves’ impact on its livestock, worked to eradicate wolves, and so a major imbalance in both the food chain and the predator–prey interactions happened which made the population of livestock explode, and started to compete and fight over natural resources. Thus, weeds and plants did not have enough time to fully grow and play its role in soil consolidation with sediments.
The overgrazing had chain of consequences, as the birds were affected by the lack of weeds and seeds produced by plants, the lake and river temperatures increased as trees and shrubs failed to provide shaded areas. The government realized the problem, but when? After 66 years!!
So, they decided to reintroduce wolves into the ecosystem in that area, and the results were impressive, as the number of livestock decreased, trees increased and rose, and the situation gradually improved.
Everything in nature works according to the Law of Wholeness: “Everything that exists is part of a whole system and depends on the health of the whole system and vice versa. It is an interactive natural relationship between creatures. Like the aforementioned (predator–prey) relationship, there is parasitism relationship, when a parasite lives on/inside another living organism (the host), a relationship based on mutual benefits between both, there is also the coexistence and competition relationship. Any interference in these relationships by increasing or removing species will have a harmful and long-term effects on the system as a whole
Nature has its own balanced system in terms of quantity, diversity, geography. Although the elements of nature are infinite, they work homogeneously as one system.
All humankind need to live in a manner that respect the law of natural, otherwise they would pay a very high price.