This reversal of a Biblical verse (for the throngs no long familiar with that volume) is the word play by Tim Flannery, author of this NYT long-read about jellyfish called They’re Taking Over. The piece consists largely of a review and summary of Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean by Lisa-ann Gershwin, with a foreword by Sylvia Earle.
I recommend it to your for your Sunday perusal and consideration. And perhaps a new volume for your delightful bedtime reading?
If we could only feed the starving masses, fertilize our fields with them and power our SUV’s with jellyfish, wouldn’t it be a different world?
I apologize if, after reading this, you hereafter have persistent dreams of being smothered and calf-roped and electrified by stings of these seemingly immortal and unstoppable ancient bags of goo.
Who would have thought the very oceans could succumb to the appetites of one species at the top of the supposed intelligence scale, making way for a global monoculture of one at the very bottom?
What a strange irony, don’t you think?
That’s just a little scary! And thought provoking!
Oh dear, Fred. I am afraid to read this piece, and only partly because you warn that it is long, and I read very slowly.