Anyone who has survived high school knows the truth—the world can be a cutthroat place. Humanity spends much of its time locked in battles for money, power, attention, affection, and yes… even that last slice of birthday cake. And with the global population multiplying faster than a field of hyperactive rabbits, the competition for resources will only get fiercer.
But it’s not just humans fighting each other. We’re also competing with thousands of other species for the basics—food, water, and land. And, frankly, we’re winning. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, global wildlife populations have dropped by an average of 68% since 1970, largely because of us. If survival were a 100-meter dash, we’d be Usain Bolt, while the rest of nature would be your grandmother on sedatives.
Whether that fills you with pride or dread, one thing is obvious: this breakneck pace isn’t sustainable. Earth’s resources aren’t infinite. To survive long term, we need to rethink how we treat the ecosystems around us—protecting and replenishing nature rather than wiping out species we see as competition.
For centuries, humans have killed animals we think threaten our food supply—from predators to pigs. Even today, that mindset drives policy. Take Japan’s controversial decision to restart commercial whaling after decades of international bans. The justification? Whales eat huge amounts of fish and krill, meaning fewer left for humans. On the surface, that logic checks out. But recent research suggests the opposite: whales actually boost fish populations rather than deplete them. And the reason why may surprise you.
Now, back to whales. They’re enormous—blue whales are the largest creatures ever to exist on Earth, bigger even than the long-necked dinosaurs. Their hearts are the size of small cars, and their arteries wide enough for a person to crawl through. To fuel such bulk, a blue whale devours up to 40 million krill a day. And, as with all eating, what goes in must come out.
Enter the whale pump—a natural process where whales dive deep to feed, then resurface to breathe and, well, relieve themselves. The result? Massive clouds of nutrient-rich fecal plumes released into the upper ocean layers where sunlight penetrates. These plumes are packed with iron and nitrogen, rare minerals near the surface, and they fertilize phytoplankton—tiny algae that form the foundation of marine food webs.
More whale poop → more phytoplankton → more fish and crustaceans → healthier oceans. Not only that, phytoplankton absorb about 40% of Earth’s carbon dioxide—roughly equal to four Amazon rainforests—and produce half of the oxygen we breathe. Which means whales, far from stealing our food, may actually help feed us and slow climate change.
This powerful influence comes from something called a trophic cascade—the domino effect that happens when a top predator is added or removed from an ecosystem. For decades, scientists assumed ecosystems were controlled from the bottom up—plants at the base determined everything above. But the theory of trophic cascades, emerging in the 1960s, showed that predators at the top can be just as critical.
Take Yellowstone National Park. By the 1920s, wolves had been hunted to extinction there. Without predators, elk populations exploded, overgrazing vegetation and eroding riverbanks. Attempts at population control failed to repair the damage. But when wolves were reintroduced in 1995, everything began to change.
Elk had to stay alert, avoiding valleys and gorges where wolves lurked. Plants like willow and aspen began to regenerate. Beavers, returning to build dams with the willow, reshaped waterways, creating new habitats. Even the rivers themselves stabilized and deepened thanks to recovering vegetation.
The lesson? Keystone species—like wolves, whales, or sea otters—hold ecosystems together in ways far beyond their numbers. Remove them, and entire landscapes collapse. Protect them, and ecosystems thrive.
Now, not all scientists agree on the exact scale of wolves’ impact at Yellowstone—ecosystems are messy, complex webs with many overlapping forces. But the broader point stands: nature is deeply interconnected.
And if understanding those connections helps us humans make smarter choices about how we share the planet, then perhaps we have a chance at balancing survival with sustainability.
Loved this read? Follow Storyantra for more quick, fascinating stories that spark curiosity in minutes.