Earth’s plant diversity shaped by cyclical climate violence: how greenhouse collapses birthed ecosystems
Original framing: “Why are there so many plants? New research reveals two key phases in Earth’s past” — The Conversation - Global
The **Japanese *mono no aware*** concept—an empathy for the transient beauty of all things—could frame plant evolution as a poetic dialogue between destruction and renewal, not just a scientific process. **Leonardo da Vinci’s** sketches of fossilized plants in the 15th century prefigured modern paleobotany but were infused with spiritual awe, treating each specimen as a message from the Earth. The research’s clinical tone misses opportunities to engage with **ecopoetry** (e.g., Mary Oliver’s work) or **land art** (e.g., Andy Goldsworthy’s ephemeral plant sculptures) as ways to *feel* these deep-time cycles. Even the **trickster figure Coyote** in Indigenous North American traditions could symbolize how chaos and creation are intertwined in plant evolution.
The research’s 'two phases' of plant evolution are not neutral events but **violent rebirths**, where each collapse creates niches that favor the fittest—or rather, the most adaptable.
The framing obscures that these cycles are not 'natural' in isolation but **co-produced** by geological forces, human activity (historically and now), and Indigenous land management. The **trickster** reveals the absurdity of treating Earth’s biosphere as a passive canvas, while **Indigenous fire ecology** and **Southern Hemisphere paleobotany** expose how Western science has systematically erased the very practices that could mitigate today’s parallel extinction. The solution lies not in studying these cycles from afar but in **reclaiming them as living processes**—through **decolonized fire management**, **fossil fuel divestment from climate science**, and **speculative, playful design** that honors the chaos as much as the creation. The lesson is clear: Earth’s plant diversity is not a static inventory but a **dynamic marketplace of stolen and regifted life**, where every extinction is also an invitation to begin again.