I love it when nature documentaries also provide extremely timely commentary about our current world and state of affairs at large:
"In more extreme environments competition is less decisive because it has one great drawback: It uses up a lot of energy. In the mountains, energy is a commodity one must manage with care. [...]
The strong eliminate the weak. We assume that's how nature works, but that's not entirely true. Up above the clouds the rules are different. Up there where nothing else can grow. When the poverty of the soil is compounded by extreme climate conditions, the rules change and life reveals one of its most wondrous secrets. [...] The strangest of them all also lives at the highest altitude, the mysterious Rock Jasmine. It may appear to be a single plant, but in fact it shelters a multitude of tiny, invisible creatures. Bacteria, mitess and insects live as a community within the Rock Jasmine. It is itself an entire ecosystem, capable of living completely autonomously.
These plants demonstrate one of the fundamental mechanisms of the natural world. When there is nothing left it isn't the strongest that succeed, but those that held one another. The tougher the conditions, the more vital it becomes to work together. That's the lesson from the inhabitants of the Alps..."
— Frédéric Fougea
The current psychopathic behaviors of our leaders are accelerating/catapulting us all towards harsher, more austere climates (not only literally, but also sociopolitically speaking) and with that, it falls on us to learn and adapt those same lessons & strategies above, as quickly and efficiently as we can. Mistakes will be made, many attempts will likely be required, but symbiosis, solidarity and collaboration always have been, and will increasingly become key survival strategies over the coming years, for many more people, once they give up on their zero-sum gaming and have learned the lesson that endless competition is depleting their own resources (as infinite as they may appear at the moment) and only worsens their own conditions...
Alps, the last sanctuary in Europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykhKHl7SxRM
(Already had shared this beautifully filmed documentary a couple of years ago, but been rewatching it with different eyes...)
#Nature #Documentary #Symbiosis #Collaboration #Alps
