Recently, it has become more and more evident that if we manage to get a hold on climate change, we still have another problem: the enormous loss of biodiversity. We still don’t know all species existing in the world which is why it is quite difficult to estimate the loss of biodiversity. However, here is an optimistic estimate: in a stable world with 2 million different species, around 2 species would become extinct every year due to “natural” reasons. At the moment, however, the extinction rate is estimated to be 100 times higher than normally, meaning around 200 species become extinct every year. The biggest reason: us – the human species – still growing and requiring more and more space. The loss of biodiversity is heart-breaking, especially when you know how little we actually understand of the diversity that is out there and that can never be seen by a human again.
I grew up in a 6-person family in the countryside with a huge garden. The garden was actually too big. My parents never managed to – what we often call – “take care” of all of it. When the grass had just been cut on one side of the garden, it was already tall on the other side (to take credit: my father used a sickle to cut the grass to ensure that no animal is harmed); when one parcel was weeded, the other parcel was already overgrown. That was very much to the dismay of us children, for example when we had to weed a parcel before being allowed to play Zelda on our Gameboy… especially since we knew that the garden will be overgrown again anyway, whereas in Zelda we could go one level higher up and save it. Whenever we came back from vacation, we called our garden the “green jungle”. The willow next to our living room would have grown such huge branches that half of the living room window was overgrown. Due to this jungle feeling, my sister and me found the “jungle club”. Together with friends, we crawled through our garden imagining we were on a discovery mission in the jungle and we indeed discovered a lot: blindworms, fire salamanders, black-and-yellow garden spiders…
In this “out of control” garden, biodiversity had its paradise. Yet, these “out-of-control” gardens are out of fashion. Instead, stone gardens are in fashion. Put pebbles on your garden plot, and a few dry-resistant plants! You will not have to take care of anything, it will be clean and everyone will have the impression you are “taking care” of your garden. This is “modern” as if it wanted to predict what our world will be like if we lose the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss: little variety, dry, hot, dessert. Before pebbles were put on the garden plot, there were many different species living on the plot, now there are only a few. This is biodiversity loss. Stone gardens and biodiversity paradises have only one thing in common: they both need only little interventions of us. I think it is very reassuring that we do not need to be in control of our garden to create a biodiversity paradise. I agree that now and then something needs to be done – but sometimes we are allowed to just keep our fingers away from our own garden.
I moved away from my childhood biodiversity paradise to the city for studying. I started out by living in a 21-floor high-rise building without any balcony. I missed some green around me – a feeling I think every city-dweller knows. Then we moved to Lausanne and a little dream became true: we got an apartment with 2 balconies. Originally, the balconies were completely empty: Species counting: 0; Biodiversity: 0. Now after 3 years of slowly increasing the plants on my balcony, I counted 60 different species (excluding insects and bad herbs).
Obviously, the biodiversity on my balcony has increased. Even wild bees found their home here. By greening their balconies, people living in the city can contribute to more biodiversity and to a better climate in our cities. Even if the balcony is a tiny space, it will for sure be visited by all kinds of insects who would be starving in the grey desert. For them even a small balcony will be a little oasis. Biodiversity is as simple as this. Biodiversity is not just the rare species in the forest that seems to go extinct. Biodiversity starts at your balcony and in your garden. We just have to give it its space!
If you want to know more about how to green your balcony on a low budget and with minimal effort – click here.
To continue reading the scientific articles:
Ceballos G, Ehrlich PR, Barnosky AD, García A, Pringle RM, Palmer TM. Accelerated modern human-induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction. Sci Adv. 2015 Jun 19;1(5):e1400253. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1400253.
Ja Nils, hast du gut geschrieben. Dass wir mit unserem Garten mal ins Internet kommen, hätten Mama und ich beim Kauf 1985 auch nicht gedacht. Man kann in der Gartenliteratur oft lesen, dass
die Anlage eines Gartens etwas über den Gärtner aussagt. Das ist auch richtig und kann beobachtet
werden. Je akkurater der Rasenschnitt, desto steriler ist die Inneneinrichtung der Haus- u. Garten-
besitzer. Typische Denkweisen sind auch erkennbar. So kann man allgemein behaupten, die Garten-
kultur ist ein Abbild unserer Gesellschaft.
Mit deinem Artikel zeigst du auf, wie jeder mit geringem Aufwand an Geld und Mitteln die “Land-
schaft” bunter und artenreicher gestalten werden kann. Trift die obige Behautung zu, müsst die
Gesellschaft bei vielen Follower unsere Gesellschaft”bunter”und toleranter werden. Viel Erfolg!!