biodiversity is a map of local minima. I'm not sure whether their optimization function is underlyingly the same or subtly different, or if by viewing the niche they inhabit you can restrict and reduce the dimensions to make those functions different, from "propagate a lineage" to... a niche that is a mosaic of subniches, hard to summarize, multifaceted even among and within individuals of the species. the facets of eating, in the various seasons, even the granular ones, and the reproductive challenges, and the defenses against attackers from without and from within, animal and plant and pathogenic and atmospheric.
are ecologies, then, superorganisms that fill their own niches too? and that have their own optimization functions. and that can be placed into the same framework of optimization and negotiation as things smaller than them, their microbiomes, their microbiomes' microbiomes, their microclimates, and the bioregions that they belong to.
when we Homogenize, we lose a Place. we lose the vibrant, moving, cyclic, living map that is that Place. we forget the delights of the hidden crannies of the most specialist little things. and how sometimes inevitably they form paths that open up into valleys and become well-trodden paths and mark the topology of big places.
an invasive population embodies the fascist rhetoric of SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST applied to our ecocompanions. mammals are more Fit than marsupials. it's only Natural that pandas should die off. it's only Natural that kangaroos should die off. we brought kudzu here because it was Fit, and it Deserves to thrive. we brought peafowl here because they were Beautiful, and now they cascade and no one knows what their ecological impact will be. They're ugly now. we must go to far-off lands to see the beautiful hummingbirds that can only feed on singular flowers. we brought here what was Natural, and it drove out what was Natural, and now we must go to the exotic to find Nature.
of course, kudzu driving everyone else out really is natural. fascism really is natural. true kindness and conscientious exchange are equally natural. a Place that is not untouched, but also not an echo nor a ghost, is equally natural.
we must not choose what simply Is. we must choose what Must Be. and kindness Must Be, must it not? hold my hand. and at once hold another's. it's only unnatural if it cannot be found. but an onlooker will find it.