When last did you wake up hearing the joyful chirps of birds? When last were you sitting on a Sunday afternoon, relaxing, without the sounds of cars, machines, television or any man-made objects? I’m not referring to dreams where these things actually happen.I’m not talking about visits to the bird sanctuary. I’m talking about everyday life. We are so caught up in our everyday lives that we tend to forget the creatures that walk on and share this earth with us. As Whitehouse pointed out in his article, “listening to birds,Carson implied, was no longer something conceivable as straightforward or inevitable” (Whitehouse,2015: 55). We need to take a few steps back and reflect to what is happening to earth, OUR HOME because slowly but surely, the soundscapes of Anthropocene are changing at a rapid pace.
‘Soundscape’ is a word which is commonly used in music. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, it is defined as a “melange of musical and sometimes non-musical sounds”.
My weekdays have a particular routine. Everyday when I go on campus, I tend to hear the same sounds: voices of different people, lawnmowers, cellphone (or device) noises or tills from food outlets. It is really rare to hear the chitter-chatter of birds,whether in the morning or afternoon. It got me thinking that maybe, just maybe we are actually inhibiting on the poor creatures freedom. Maybe they also want to be out and about,but do not get the opportunity to, due to our somewhat selfishness. It was correct of Whitehouse to say that “human sounds are drowning out the biophony (sounds made by animals,plants and other organisms) and geophony in many parts of the world” (Whitehouse,2015:56). When I enter different spaces, the sounds mentioned above are still heard clearly, thus being constant. The sounds heard are dominating and can be considered to be soundscapes of the anthropocene. If we did not live in this concrete jungle, more earthly creatures would have “freedom of expression”. Life would be interesting, colourful. Instead of “drowning out” the sounds made by the creatures such as birds, we should be lifting up awareness of animal (and wildlife) conservation.
As a student at the University of Pretoria, it is difficult to hear the sounds that the birds make (unless I go near the botanical gardens). I had to wake up early on Saturday morning to be able to experience the freedom the birds have while the city was still asleep. You would swear I was in a different place, when in fact I wasn’t. The experience of sitting outside with the pure intention of listening to the birds was different (in a good way) but also strange. It was different as it was not the normal sounds one expects to hear: cars, cellphones, music, people talking. It was like listening to the birds express themselves; have conversations with one another. It was quite touching as this experience does not come in one’s direction that often. Some birds were chattering really loudly in comparison to others. Upon closer inspection, I became aware that some of the bigger birds are the ones which were more “outspoken”. The colours of the birds were a normal grey. Gone are the days when once in a while, the brightly coloured birds would come by. The bird sounds seem to be of a particular or a few number of species. There is definitely a lack in biodiversity, almost as if birds are becoming at an alarming rate too. The responses to what is heard is one of where people either ignore what is happening or one when people get irritated to hear those sounds made by the birds as they are not sounds that we are accustomed to anymore. As one is listening to the joyful sounds of the creatures, the response is different, as one has more knowledge of the Anthropocene than others. The response is one of a loving, caring nature as well as one of concern.
Our generation and the future generations have definitely missed out on the wonderful bird life and wildlife that nature used to offer. The fact that previous generations did not have to go to the zoo, or go on the internet to see a photograph of what a particular animal or bird looks like says enough.
My grandmother having lived in a village had the luxury of being woken up at the crack of dawn by the sounds of chickens. Sometimes upon her journey to school, the cows would be awake grazing as well as cattle. The field would be filled with countless birds “unlike nowadays, where you see one every so often”. There were more animals in the wild; more people who kept cattle kraals and who had a genuine love for animals. “The days when we used to chase the chickens in the yards, will always stay in my heart because that is when we gained a lot of memories” says my grandmother.
The interview conducted is a clear indication that one could say that one has a gap missing in one’s childhood. It is a gap which cannot be filled unfortunately. This places emphasis on the fact that nature is not the way that it used to be; that it should be. Nature is in fact, different to such an extent that there is a lack in biodiversity and the ecosystem is changing to in various aspects. It is very disheartening to see the fading away of the ecosystem and of biodiversity. The Anthropocene represents the public death of the modern understanding of Nature removed from society” (Whitehouse,2015:54). This is a negative thought which can be spun around to become a positive with the right mindset, as humans. The reason why there is a deterioration is due to the fact that humans are bring disruptions. These disruptions may work for one party, but they do not work for others too. The altering of the environment has brought about more negatives than positives upon closer analysis. The problem is that humans are thinking of their needs and forgetting about the future needs. Clearly, future generations will not know what animals or birds sound like in real life. In primary school, we were surrounding by hadida’s. I remember the days when we would have competitions based on who could ‘impersonate’ them best. Since those years, yet again, there has been a decrease in the loss of biodiversity as well as a degradation of ecosystems.
Our soundscape is a clear indicator that we live in the Anthropocene. It may take a while for many people to realise it and to change their actions, because it is a fairly new concept. Humans are disrupting peace by causing disruptions to the harmonies of sonic ecosystem. This is evident as the number of species of birds that have been accounted for have significantly decreased and so has the biodiversity of animals too. It can therefore be said that the Anthropocene is evidenced by the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity. On the positive side, it is not too late to change the way we do things. We can slow down the process and preserve the little that we have left of our biodiversity.
Sources Consulted:
Gisli, P et al. 2013. Reconceptualizing the ‘Anthropos’ in the Anthropocene: integrating the social sciences and humanities in global environmental change research. Environmental Science & Policy 28:3-13.
Steffen, W et al. 2011. The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 369:842-867.
Waters, CN et al. 2016. The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene. Science 351(6269):[sp].
Whitehouse, A. 2015. Listening to birds in the Anthropocene: the anxious semiotics of sound in a human-dominated world. Environmental Humanities 6:53-71.
Born in the wild||Captured by the city 