Substitution
Written by Mateo Rueda Montes
From my quaint porch, I can see a welcoming prairie rolling into the distance. A cloud of disturbed dust travels in the distance. The smell of petrichor is in the air and the ground is soft to step on, but otherwise only a few clouds dot the sky. It wasn’t always this way, though. This land used to be what was called the Sahara, but fortunately those days of sandy dunes are a distant memory.
Towards the end of the 21st century, though humanity had mastered renewable power and precision robotics, run-away climate change had eroded any hope of the Earth recovering its natural balance. Predictive modelling was near-infallible by this point and determined no feasible solution to return the Earth to its former glory, so to speak. While some looked to space to solve these issues, the greatest minds had a more revolutionary idea: Remake the Earth.
When I was a child, the first Earthscapers were released into the wild, and what we call the Reclamation Era began. Larger than elephants but dextrous as cats, the steel quadrupeds quickly reversed the habitat loss caused by industrial climate change by replacing and accelerating animals meant to adjust the landscape. This meant building beaver dams to adjust water flow, burrowing in soft soil beds like hippopotami, or creating animal footpaths as elephants would [1,2,3].
They towered among us, with strong legs and feet capable of confidently moving heavy terrestrial loads. They labored to create a new natural balance, and within a decade, the Earth was beginning to look greener and wildlife populations bloomed where Earthscapers traversed. A decade later, and humanity had restored all the lost biodiversity of the past century with what little species we had successfully conserved. With nimble legs and watch-like ticking noises, the Earthscapers recovered the Earth we thought we had lost.
And so, we persisted. Confronted with a new mission, we decided to press on. The Earthscapers continued reclaiming land, beyond what we had even before climate change had taken almost everything. The Sahara, the Arctic Tundra, and Antarctica quickly became plentiful habitat for new species from other biomes. Combined with our utopian technologies, we sustainably settled these lands, confident that we would never repeat the mistakes of yesterday.
Unfortunately, nature is not so simple. Though we had remodeled the land, our models quickly recognized that our manipulation of nature was short-lived and fragile. 5 years ago, nature’s rebellion against our machinations began with regular dam bursting and sinkhole formation. Dutiful as ever, our uncomplaining mechanical compatriots were repurposed to maintain our self-destructing land. While they had previously been working far from eyeshot, the Earthscapers were now reforming the land in our backyard to keep us safe.
Were they always so foreboding? These ambivalentrigs in the distantnow scurry over our heads and their gentle ticking up close sound more like crunching gears. Well-programmed to never touch us but without any semblance of fear towards us, the Earthscapers dart over crowds on their way to the next crisis to crisis to correct. The warmth of the sun momentarily subtracted by their shadows sends especially eerie chills down my spine. The slight shaking of the Earth as they approach unease and silence any conversation. It’s simply uncomfortable and I wish there was an alternative to their dominance, though I know in my heart there is no other way.
We never lost control. The world is more livable now than when I was first born. We are safe, well-fed, and healthy. But with the unceasing mechanical beasts becoming the only barrier between us and another ecological collapse, it feels like the world is theirs to take care of. Perhaps there was some point in history where we could have been stewards of the Earth, where instead of a patchwork held together by Earthscapers, we could have held on to that eternal natural order. Unfortunately, those days are long past.
References:
[1] "Leave it to Beavers - Video: How Beavers Build Dams," Nature on PBS, Jun. 2, 2014. [Online].
Available: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/leave-it-to-beavers-video-how-beavers-build-dams/8847/.
[Accessed: Oct. 6, 2024].
[2] "Hippos," Born Free Foundation, [Online]. Available: https://www.bornfree.org.uk/animals/hippos/.
[Accessed: Oct. 6, 2024].
[3] "African elephant trails help other animals approach differently," Phys.org, Aug. 11, 2020. [Online].
Available: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-african-elephant-trails-approach-differently.html. [Accessed:
Oct. 6, 2024].
