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The Serengeti & Cycles that Never Stop
The First principle in the Earth’s Greening of the Biosphere
This is the sixth installment of An Earthen Ethic. Now we launch into the first of the six Earthen principles.
Observe the way the Earth has used its elements as indefinitely circular building blocks. — Earthen Ethic №1
The Serengeti volcanic grasslands lie just south of the Tanzanian/Kenyan border and the African equator. This vast area of over 30,000 square kilometers is home to one of the most enduring large mammal ecosystems on the planet.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle migrate through the grasslands accompanied by their predators. As the grasses capture carbon from the air, they build their stalks to carpet the savanna. In so doing, the grass lays out a vast and ever regenerating banquet. As the wildebeest and other herbivores graze, they digest the grass’s cellulose, releasing molecules of glucose, proteins, lipids and other nutrients to power their roaming and build their bodies. Then, when a lagging grazer falls prey to a lurking lion, it is the carnivore that grows strong on the very same molecules. In the dung…
