Get to work! New non-fiction books: Mao exterminated the sparrows and caused famine

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It was a robin, not a lark: Early one morning recently, while it was still dark outside, I walked with my smartphone to an open window and pressed the Shazam app for bird songs – “BirdNET” identified the sounds of woodpeckers and finches instead of the songs of pike and roses. In my case, as I said, it was a robin. I listened to the singing a little more and was moved by how this little hand-sized guy bravely faced the day.

“The positive impact of birdsong on our well-being has been studied many times,” writes German Sarah Heuseroth (35) in her recently published first book. In 2022, a study by the Max Planck Institute and Hamburg University Hospital found that bird songs reduce our fears and irrational thoughts. “This may be because birdsong tells us that the natural environment is intact and there are no acute threats,” the author says.

Heuseroth is a professional illustrator, and this brings the book to great strength: the double page spread clearly describes the interactions between birds and the environment in words and images. The first part is about the influence of feathered friends on other living beings, the second part is about the influence of a change in habitat on birds. Heuseroth cites a 2017 German study that found a 75 percent decline in flying insects over 27 years due to agricultural monocultures.

Where there are no insects, birds will soon stop flying. As a result, there is a shortage of feces, which fertilize the fields on land and promote the growth of plankton in the water, which in turn serves as food for fish. Effective pollinators of flowers and trees are also being lost. Last but not least, other animals do not have an alarm system. “For example, wapiti deer have become more attentive to crows,” Heuseroth writes, “since wolves returned to Yellowstone National Park.”

On the other hand, a shortage of birds can also lead to insect infestations, as Heuseroth shows in China in 1958: At that time, Mao (1893–1976) ordered the extermination of sparrows because they were eating grain. “The following summer swarms of insects invaded the country and locusts destroyed the crops,” says Heuseroth. “Famine began and 30 million people died.” Because sparrows ate much less grain than insects.

It can be seen that the world is in a fragile balance – if one side retreats, everything can quickly capsize. Or, to paraphrase the title of the book: the world is not just in an eggshell, it is itself very fragile. But Heuseroth urges: “As long as the sky is full of birds and the air is filled with singing, we all have hope for a future worth living.”

Source: Blick