Have we learned from a history of migration?
Ever since humans walked out of Africa, migration has taken place. However, when the land is already occupied 鈥� and the stronger group makes no attempt to treat the other with compassion, tolerance and respect 鈥� long-term problems arise. The Indigenous peoples of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, among others, bear witness to such problems. No one should stay silent on such matters (11 November, p 28).
If you're worried about acne, work up a sweat
On the subject of acne, rather than lotions or medicines, I find the easiest way to improve skin is to exercise for about 30 minutes non-stop and work up a good sweat. Then sit in a steam room for as long as you can with a bottle of water for rehydration. My skin improves in no time. It became awful during covid-19 lockdowns, but once I returned to the gym, it cleared up very quickly (18 November, p 36).
Such a pristine landscape may not be realistic now
You report that ancient Europe before any real human influence was full of savannah, grazed by elephants, along with a suggestion that if conservationists want to restore the ancient forest biome, we should recreate the processes that led to this landscape. However, is this Eemian interglacial landscape an appropriate or realistic biome model for conservation? How long would it take, and how big an area would we need for a sustainable ecosystem based on this period to be re-established? Logic would also suggest trying to exclude all human influence from such areas, which is unlikely to be possible (18 November, p 15).
The biomes of the pre-farming landscapes from the early to mid-Holocene, or even landscapes of the early medieval period, are alternative and perhaps more realistic models for conservation. The effects of the largest (by then extinct) megafauna can be sidelined and some types of human activity can be accepted as an integral part of the mix. The outcome would still be immensely richer landscapes than at present.
The new, green age of motoring is depressing
In your review of Ben Goldfarb’s book on wildlife-traffic conflicts, the figure of 2 billion new road vehicles by 2030 was depressing. Sadly, the mindset seems to be business as usual with the excuse that it will be “green”. Everyone having their own car and the road capacity to use it is unsustainable, no matter how green the power supplies are. Roads, parking and car building, maintenance and disposal can’t be environmentally neutral. We need fewer car trips by promoting working and shopping from home and universal cheap or even free public transport (4 November, p 28).
Art may be far more widespread than that (1)
Your feature traces the history of hominid art, but quickly dispatches the creations of the bowerbird as not art. I think it is a mistake to be so dismissive (18 November, p 32 and Leader).
On Valentine’s Day some years ago, I watched a pair of carrion crows outside my window. The male had placed a small white object on the grass and was creating a rosette of dead oak leaves around it, carefully placing each leaf, then looking up at the female. With each leaf, she hopped a bit closer. Was the rosette art? It was symmetrical and certainly wasn’t stereotyped. The male crow was more creative than me with my shop-bought card for my wife.
Art may be far more widespread than that (2)
It is sad that you believe science should be used to rule out the possibility of art, writing that “claims that an artefact was intended as a work of art should be treated with caution, considering all alternative possibilities”. Wouldn’t it be more exciting to consider that something can be both artistic and functional? The interpretation that art is separate, can’t be part of the everyday, the functional, is reductive and a legacy of our industrial past.
Mirror trick is vital for many animals, surely
The rooster that wasn’t alarmed by its own reflection in a mirror may not be exhibiting self-awareness so much as “not-other awareness”. Any species that drinks from still water will be presented with a natural mirror, and it will need to know that the reflection it sees isn’t a foe to be fled from every time it wants a drink 鈥� hardly in the interest of its survival. All such creatures probably sense this. But we shouldn’t confuse it with true self-awareness. That is a higher level of cognition probably only seen in a few species (4 November, p 18).
Australian oases of a very different kind
“The secret life of oases” was a terrific insight into Australia’s artesian springs and others around the world. Where I live on the coast, it is anything but a desert, yet we have extensive coastal dune fields. Rain here soaks right through to bedrock, spreading and emerging at low points in the dune profile (11 November, p 40).
Some have standing water, some support isolated plant communities, such as littoral rainforests, that are quite different to those of surrounding sands. One sometimes must travel tens of kilometres to find sites that share the same species, with the obvious potential for distinct local subspecies to evolve over time.
We need better grid storage solutions
The progress in South Australia on renewable energy is fantastic. But it would be useful to get away from lithium-based batteries for grid storage. This would decrease the demand and hence the price of this metal, reducing further the cost of electric cars to consumers (28 October, p 36).
So much lithium would be needed for a world of EVs
Graham Lawton writes that “coal ash alone contains an estimated 288,000 tonnes of lithium, enough to supply the US market for 130 years”. But just switching UK cars to lithium batteries would require 50,000 tonnes of lithium, and switching the whole world would require 40 times as much (18 November, p 22).