Xishuangbanna's landscape resembled nearby Thailand. It was home to lush rainforests, Asiatic elephants, tigers, and much of the province's vaunted biodiversity.
Dr. Pamela Isley led the efforts of Project CONSERVE on behalf of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden. A visiting researcher at the Garden, her alma mater was Gotham U, expert in botany, biochemistry, and genetics. Her work for the Project had led her to Xishuangbanna to focus on forest ecology and conservation research.
The XTBG proclaimed its vision as a "Noah's Ark for tropical plants," home to more than 10,000 species. Though the focus of the XTBG was botany, bats constituted 60% of mammals in Southeast Asian rainforests, even more in tropical China. The Xishuangbanna rainforest was home to 15% of China's plant species, a fifth of its mammals, and more than a third of its birds. This made the XTBG an attractive base for bat ecology research and field expeditions. The project team based at the XTBG gathered samples from bat roosts in caves and tree canopies throughout the prefecture.
Dr. Isley greeted Bruce at the pond next to the visitor's center of the XTBG. Covering the water's surface were lily pads several meters in diameter, overseen by palm trees, tall and uniform like flagpoles. Surrounding this were hectares of manicured gardens, giving way to virgin rainforest.
The two proceeded to walk the grounds of the garden as they spoke. Bruce felt the need to break the ice with Dr. Isley, ill at ease in her company, detecting an undercurrent of unexplained scorn. "I'm curious about the Garden's vision as a 'Noah's ark of tropical plants.' What does this entail?"
Though a simmering disdain persisted, the doctor seemed enthused to discuss the topic. "We operate a seed bank here for endangered tropical plants. It's intended to preserve the genes of plant species. Should an extinction ever occur, we could bring the species back using the preserved seed."
"Dr. Isley, I wanted to know what you could illuminate from your work alongside Dr. Langstrom, within the context of Project CONSERVE. Could Kirk have been developing a virus, adapted from the bat population, which he could release into the human population?"
To Bruce's eyes, this suggestion was novel to Isley, who shook her head with confusion. "What would be the motive?"
"I know how Kirk felt about the state of humanity, and the impact it's having on the environment and biodiversity. He was very vocal on how much he despised deforestation - when humans change natural, wild environments to make way for humans."
Dr. Isley seemed to want to cast doubt on Bruce's suggestion. "Kirk cared, in a very deep way, about the ecosystem, and the fragility of ecologies. It's very infectious and inspiring when he invokes such thoughts. I envied his ability to suck the marrow of nature. It was beautiful how he communicated and educated others on the topic. But, in contrast to what you're suggesting, he believed the greater threat was a reverse zoonosis."
"His concern was for the capacity for human populations to introduce infectious diseases into animals?"
"Not in a literal sense. My interpretation was he meant zoonotic disease was the defense against humans."
"Meaning humankind was the virus of nature?"
Pamela nodded. "Yes. I can't disagree with him," she remarked, venturing a fierce look of resolution. "Let's consider the pathogens which have crossed over into the human population from bats: SARS, MERS, Ebola, Nipah, Hendra. What do we expect? We force bat colonies to roost in abandoned mineshafts because we fell the forest which they used to live in. Man forces the colony to compete for food with civilization and domesticated animals on farms. Farmers use bat guano as fertilizer in agriculture, the irony being agriculture is one of the drivers of the land clearing of bat habitats. This brings wild bat populations into proximity with human settlements. Bats live in the biggest populations except humans - one in every four mammals. No wonder our species are abutting theirs. We don't appreciate what it means for wildlife to remain wild.
"The Hendra virus came from bats infecting a horse in suburban Australia, causing them to die. Farmhands tried to hand-feed the dying horses, and contracted flu-like symptoms and died themselves. Why? Because fruit bats nibbled on the same food as the horses. Why are bats sharing food with domesticated horses? Deforestation, depriving the bats of their habitat and food sources. The bats are more likely to shed the viruses they carry when distressed, because of this shock to their natural habitat. Wild animals are suffering in proximity to the human settlements we've imposed on them, and we're feeling the blowback. The same story with Ebola virus, Lyme disease, malaria. This is what happens when we deforest, though we're surprised when these pathogens spillover.
"What is more miraculous than life? Yet we treat it like it's nothing. For ecosystems to be resilient, we need genetic variability and a diversity of species, otherwise they risk collapse. Although cattle pasture, or urban dwellings are more precious to us than tropical rainforests. I'm not sure whether you came here to hear my diatribe or not. You might feel my views are a little strong...but it doesn't keep them from being correct."
"Was Kirk a misanthrope?"
The scientist paused, sighing. "For certain he was against anthropocentrism. He by no means believed humans were the center of the universe, let alone planet Earth. At the same time, he was a part of mankind. I prefer to think of Kirk as an altruistic misanthrope.
"Vampire bats need to consume up to their full body mass in blood each night to survive, lest they starve. They can lose a quarter of their mass within a couple of days and die. Yet they're also among the few examples of altruism in the animal kingdom, bringing back blood sucked from their prey to the roost. They give this to the young, or those members of the roost who cannot hunt - at their own expense, even if not relatives."
Bruce saw an irony in Kirk's seeming endeavors to be half-man, half-bat. Though there was no getting away from what Kirk held in contempt: his own kind. Kirk wanted to protect biodiversity from mankind's predations. An attempt at redemption, whilst reconciling his own humanity.
"How can you defend mankind?" continued Isley. "Geologists coin the modern era in our name, leading us to the brink of the mass extinction of millions of species. We factory farm helpless animals. Mankind allows millions of children to die of preventable diseases, on a scale equal to an annual holocaust. Is misanthropy, through a different lens, not a love of life in its whole? Are we exceptional? Why is violence committed upon the biosphere condoned?"
"Meaning the environment justifies violence?"
"Civilization is violence," retorted Isley, as though it were personal toward Bruce. "Factory farms are violent. Resource extraction is violent. Combusting fossil fuels is violent. Even our social systems are violent. Nature does not have violence. A tiger mauling an antelope to death isn't violence - it is nature taking its course. There's a balance in it. There is no balance to what man does."
Bruce sighed, recognizing she spoke truth, though an instinct arose in him to play devil's advocate all the same. "What if a human victim was innocent?"
"Is the antelope in the example I gave innocent? It's neither innocent nor guilty. Nature makes no discernment. Do we mourn the antelope? If we watched the mauling happen in a nature documentary, we would feel sadness for the antelope. But we recognize nature taking its course. Why should we make a distinction for so-called innocent people of our own species?
"Our civilization supports what ought to be crimes against the environment, which cannot speak for itself. Tell me, who is not responsible for civilization's adverse effects? If you pick any person, and they are not responsible for all the world's ills, then who is?
"We diffuse responsibility, yet we cannot all shift the blame. Dislike the notion all you like. No matter how noble our intentions, or altruistic our actions, we all leave this world worse off than we found it. We could've co-existed, Bruce. But our species has a pathology putting us central, the same as when astronomers believed the Sun and planets of the solar system orbited the Earth."
Bruce asked himself if he could disagree. "Dr. Isley, your colleague, Dr. Bèi, advised me Kirk was last seen on a research trip somewhere in the rainforest. Is this also your understanding?"
"It is. I'd suggest speaking with one of our researchers, Dr. Dong Xue. She's not a participant of Project CONSERVE, but often went with Dr. Langstrom on trips. Dr. Xue was to join Kirk on the most recent visit to a cave in the prefecture, though she fell ill and couldn't go. I'll introduce you to her now. Let's head back toward the laboratories."
