I’m Lichen It
The Arctic Circle of Life
3 min readApr 15, 2024
When you take humans out of the picture it’s amazing how quickly natural ecologies takes over. A few years ago while lecturing aboard a National Geographic cruise to Svalbard Island, I watched that process unfold in dramatic fashion. In front of me a cliff studded with bird colonies came into view. The shrieks could be heard above the breaking waves. The guano stained rocks offered up a waft of…