What if the story of Noah’s Ark is not simply a tale of the distant past, but a warning for the present? In this extract from the introduction to Ark: A Visual Treasury of Earth’s Living Wonders, Stephen Ellcock revisits one of humanity’s oldest myths to explore our increasingly fragile relationship with the natural world. Drawing parallels between the biblical flood and the environmental crises of today, he delivers an impassioned reflection on loss, responsibility and our duty to protect the extraordinary diversity of life that shares this planet with us.
Nourouz still life, Persia, Qajar, 19th century. Private Collection
From their earliest days on earth, humans have often acted like the houseguests from hell – rude, messy, prone to violent outbursts – cursed with an alarming tendency to trash the fixtures and fittings, driven by an irrepressible urge to grab anything of the slightest conceivable value.
It took just ten generations from the creation of Adam and Eve for the God of the Old Testament to lose patience with humanity, the pinnacle of his creation. Adam and Eve were conceived in God’s image and entrusted with the care of all that God had created, but from the moment they cast a covetous glance at the forbidden fruits of paradise they, along with their descendants, were doomed. Cast out of paradise, they and their offspring plunged headlong into a deadly spiral of sin and self-destruction. Faced with humanity’s precipitous fall from grace, God resolved to teach his wayward children the Ultimate lesson, sending the Flood to purge the planet. Only Noah – the one true righteous man – was spared, anointed as the last hope of creation and the guarantor of future life on earth.
Kahn & Selesnick, The Augury of the Ark, 2016-17. © Kahn & Selesnick
The people of Noah’s time succumbed to wickedness, corruption and violence; yet their transgressions pale in significance when compared to the evils, brutality and all-too-commonplace crimes against the planet of our own time. Now, scarcely ten generations on from the dawn of the modern industrial world, we stand on the brink of yet another cataclysm. However, unlike the Biblical Flood, the catastrophe approaching is entirely of our own making, the consequence of our own destructive impulses.
A ramshackle alliance of robber barons, ghouls and racketeers now hold the globe to ransom, forfeiting the future by hijacking and trashing the public realm, fracturing social bonds and poisoning the very earth herself. Pirates and profiteers, the shock troops of techno-feudalism, now run rampant, slashing and burning their way through our heritage, rights, the rule of law and the social contracts that once held us together. Compassion and respect are anathema to these brutes, who lay waste to everything that gives life value and meaning. Exploitation has replaced cultivation; mindless gratification and self-indulgence are considered virtues; while self-awareness and self-sacrifice are beneath contempt, the preserve of deadbeats and losers. Self-worth is measured in material wealth and the fruits of corruption. Unchecked greed, enforced by the extortionist practises of modern-day capitalism, has become the universal currency, accepted everywhere, no questions asked. Today we could be living in respectful harmony with our neighbours and all other creatures on earth, butinstead we bought the lie of endless progress. We could be the guardians of an unimaginably beautiful, endlessly fertile planet, a world of extravagant abundance whose natural resources, if carefully managed, could sustain and nurture every living thing for countless millennia to come. But the covenant with the natural world that is the birthright of humanity has been deliberately and violently shattered over the past few centuries, alienating us from our own planet – billions of orphans forcibly torn from the arms of Mother Earth.
Long-Tsing-Yu ou Les Yeux de Dragon. François-Nicolas Martinet and Edme Billardon-Sauvigny's Histoire Naturelle des Dorades de la Chine, Paris, Louis Jorry, 1780
As a result, we are facing multiple crises. These crises are real and are happening here and now. Ark is my modest attempt to encapsulate the astonishing diversity and boundless variety of the living world; a catalogue of living wonders, from microbes to megafauna. I cannot hope to encompass the entirety and immensity of creation within the limits of a single volume. All I can offer is a small selection of the countless marvels I have discovered over many years spent as a hunter-gatherer of images, driven by a lifelong fascination with the natural world. Many of the species within these pages face grave challenges, while others may soon vanish forever, but all are part of the tree of life and all, without exception, should be valued, conserved and cherished.
This book is an affirmation rather than an elegy, a celebration of the richness of life that will inspire awe, astonishment and wonder together with a renewed appreciation and respect for the glories of the natural world and for every living thing with whom we share our fragile home. I hope it will encourage all of us to take up the role originally intended for humanity and become stewards of the earth and all its living creatures.
Words by Stephen Ellcock.
Ark: A Visual Treasury of Earth’s Living Wonders by Stephen Ellcock is available now.
