Biodiversity is Art Diversity

In Austria, the ministry responsible for science policies has always been called “…for Science and Art”. This reflects the fact that art, which, like science, is declared to be “free”, should consciously open up and keep open spaces for inspiration, invention and the acceptance of even crazy ideas. It goes without saying that this freedom is always also a child of its time, as the message above the entrance to the so-called Secession – an art space - in Vienna rightly states: “To Time its Art - to Art its Freedom”.

Spaces of art, whether real or virtual, are always also spaces of an infinite number of options for expression. Art allows limitless diversity of expression, limited only by the diversity of nature in which man, and especially the artist, lives. Only since some forty years ago, the concept of biodiversity has conquered the discourse space for this infinite variety of forms of expression in nature.

Just as this blog article about biodiversity was being written, the Austrian Federal Audit Office published a massive criticism of the use of pesticides in agriculture - in a country that is famous for caring for its natural environment. One of the quotes from this report published in July 2024: "Numerous international studies prove a connection between the loss of biodiversity and the use of chemical-synthetic pesticides in the context of intensive agriculture. However, the complex interrelationships and several other possible causes (in particular climate change and habitat loss) have not yet been sufficiently researched and valid data on the use of pesticides has not yet been available. According to the Austrian Climate Protection Ministry's ‘Biodiversity Strategy Austria 2030+’, the current risk assessment of pesticides is inadequate and contributes to the decline in biodiversity in the agricultural landscape".

Biodiversity is no longer an issue for nature romantics who long for the colorful diversity of living nature, but has now reached the level of agricultural survival and thus the conception of economic policies and the survival and competitiveness of at least food production. We have all learned from media publications that the death of bee colonies caused by pesticides has the consequence that large parts of fruit production come to a standstill when bees fail as fruit pollinators. In Japan, people are already climbing fruit trees to spread fertilizing pollen with brushes.

The role of biodiversity in their economic modeling can be compared to what we know in the material economy as supply chains. If a link in the chain fails and cannot be replaced quickly, this not only has consequences for the lack of supply to the end customer in the chain, but in any case, each new closure of the chain generates additional, price-driving costs. The comparison with the function of a balanced biodiverse system is perfectly legitimate. The case of the bees is just one of the particularly vivid examples. In general, the proven massive decline in the insect population is a measurable phenomenon that shows that the food chain is suffering most demonstratively, first with birds, but also with small and then ever larger mammals. If we extend this chain down into the soil, science knows that the delicate balance of microorganisms in the soil is also a prerequisite for plants and small animals to thrive in and on it. And at this point at the latest, we are astonished to learn that these are microorganisms of which only around 5% have been genetically profiled to date.  (One gram of soil contains around 1 billion microorganisms, 200 million of fungal hyphae and thousands of animal species. Soil life - Edaphon - breaks down and stabilizes organic residues, detoxifies organic contaminants, contributes significantly to a stable soil structure and thus to protection against erosion and soil degradation). With regard to life on earth, we are dealing with a situation of knowledge similar to that of outer space, only 5% of which we know what it consists of, the rest is dark matter. (The discussion about organic networks that can extend over square kilometers in the soil and serve as "data cables" between fungal or tree root networks is also exciting here - a topic for a book of its own).

The topic of biodiversity opens the curtain to a new stage set in our complex world theater. In our highly technological age, nature in its entirety is actually only controlled by humans in those parts where they have learned to exploit it directly for their own benefit. Francis Bacon (1561 - 1621), who famously said that knowledge is power, meant, in a seemingly naïve view today, that scientific knowledge of how to subdue the earth (see Old Testament, Genesis 1,28) gives those who apply this knowledge unconditionally the power of domination. But what we have to learn anew today, again using the example of the discussion on biodiversity, is that our interventions in nature and its sensitive balance between billions of microorganisms can have dramatic consequences every time, including the failure of food and raw material production. In the broadest sense, says Catharina Belfrage Sahlstrand, sustainability manager at Danish Handelsbanken, the economic value attributed to biodiversity, when all sectors such as forest products, fisheries, food, beverages, tobacco, mining, oil & gas, transportation, textiles, apparel, electric utilities and power production are included in the calculation, will amount to more than 50% of the global gross national product and US$ 44 trillion in absolute terms.

Back to the excitement about biodiversity as an open template space for creativity and inspiration. Even if this is not the UN's primary motive for dedicating itself energetically and comprehensively to the discipline of biodiversity with a mission these days, this initiative has given the topic a significance that goes far beyond the narrower definition that it is about the biological space of our existence. Nothing is more and better suited than art and artistic expression to communicate this existentially important topic in a vivid and therefore understandable way. Incidentally, this is GRASP's self-imposed mission: to make concepts vivid that are otherwise not or only barely understood due to their abstract nature.