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Jobs, with no one to fill them. That’s loss of biodiversity

In Ireland today - and probably all across Western Europe as well - there are problem situations in the job market. There are jobs that it seems no one wants to do. Farmers are crying out for milkers, for drivers, and it seems that any job that requires hard work, long hours, and getting dirty, is not popular. People have got the idea that staying indoors, in the warm and dry and in a nice clean environment, is preferable. A better way to earn a living.

Let us hope this doesn’t get worse, and also that this doesn’t continue. Because if these businesses can’t get employees to do the work, the businesses could collapse. And if too many businesses collapse, the economy collapses. And if we take the whole idea to an extreme, that bodes very ill for all of us, whether involved in the job market, living in central Dublin, or rural West Cork.

This is a perfect parallel example of the need for high levels of biodiversity. Think of each ecological niche as a job opportunity, specifically a job for a certain set of special skills. And think of each organism as possessing a certain set of unique skills.

With high biodiversity, every job is filled by a skilled worker, and the whole system - the ‘economy’ - prospers. If the odd job, or odd set of workers fail, die out, get disrupted, the effect on the economy is slight and the hiccup is taken up by the rest of the workforce.

But the fewer skilled labourers there are, the more jobs there are that remain unfilled, and so holes appear in the job market, unfilled positions, businesses that cannot operate, functions that cannot be filled, services that cannot be provided.

At a certain point, the gaps become a serious problem, and the whole economy starts to suffer. And then if there is some slight disruption to the market, like a war in some distant country affecting the flow of produce, there are few workers who can step into the gap, make up the shortfall, fix the problem; or if temperatures rise or water supply drops, there are fewer organisms that can cope with the change, and fewer that can fill the gaps that arise. Eventually we are looking at the collapse of the system, with an inability to sustain itself to a degree that is even near useful.

High biodiversity, like a population of skilled, willing and variously experienced workers, gives a highly resilient and productive system. Resilience to change and disruption, and an ability to survive and continue.

Loss of biodiversity is like a population of unwilling, uncooperative, unskilled workers - it is vulnerable at best, disruptive at worst.

So for High Biodiversity - think Resilience - think Productive - think Survival.

I don’t think that is too strong a comparison.

Next time you think about getting the weedkiller, insecticide, fungicide, or mosskiller out - think of the labour market and what you are going to do to the economy. You are about to make some vacancies that cannot be filled.