The Blue Mountains are pretty spectacular, though many of the best views were out of sight at the weekend due to mist. However, we’d seen a few of the best views before when we were here at the end of 2000 and the mist gave the mountains a strangely dreamlike quality.
We travelled up there and went on the canyon walk with an “eco tour” company. They’re quite big on these tours that concentrate on the environment in the mountains. Our guide was very knowledgeable on the flora and fauna of the mountains and we learnt a lot of good stuff.
For example, the plants in many areas have adapted to survive bushfires, and indeed many require fires to survive, since the Aboriginals would regularly burn the forests to drive out animals for hunting and encourage fresh growth. Many of the trees need fire to open their seed pods and disperse the seeds – dropping their seeds after a fire means the seeds stand a good chance of finding purchase in the burnt (fertile) soil and the seeds will have a chance to get a good start before the next fire. The eucalyptus trees (whose emissions give the mountains their blue hue) shed their bark and this falls to the floor and acts as a handy kindling for the next fire. A few months after the inevitable fires (they don’t need the Aboriginals to light the fires with the dry heat they get here) the forests are green and thriving. A strange ecosystem.
It bothered me a bit that the guide didn’t seem to have quite grasped the concept of evolution by natural selection. He kept saying that the animals and plants had to decide whether to die or adapt, and they’d chosen to adapt. If he meant this as a convenient shorthand for the process of natural selection then I suppose that’s fair enough. I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first, but as the day went on I got the impression that he didn’t mean it that way and he genuinely thought the plants and animals were purposefully adapting so as not to die out. I find this a bit worrying and it just continues to make the theory misunderstood and ill appreciated. Even if the guide was using this “choice” as shorthand it’s not helpful since so many people misunderstand the theory. Evolution by natural selection is the best (only!) theory we have to explain the state of life on Earth by non-miraculous means, and it’s a shame that someone who knows a lot about the environment doesn’t appreciate the simplicity and beauty of the theory.
Preaching over.