Create the future #2 - What we can learn about co-creation from a 140 million year old species
Ants in your pants?
Consider yourself lucky! 🐜 🤗
It’s an insect, not a spider, it has six legs instead of eight,
three on this side, three on that side, and it’s crawling on your plate!
🐜🐜🐜
Hello you brilli-ANT beings! How are we today? Full of ANT-iciption of the weekend ahead? Today is an import-ANT day… as we are talking about the little creatures that seemingly come out of nowhere.
No matter where in the world you live - you will always see ants*.
We’ve all been there: The moment we take the first bite out of our well-deserved afternoon snack, whether its a piece of cake, or even just a cup of tea with a sprinkle of sugar in it, BOOM, literally out of nowhere, an army of ants arrive to claim their part of it. Usually, we are not willing to share, and rather try to brush off those little soldiers, or even kill them. Today’s article, however, might change your perception of this 140 million years old species that lived right next to dinosaurs (Ha! outlived you, T-Rex🦖). We can learn much from ants as a collective, and thus, maybe you will fall in love with them instead. 🙏 #yeahyeahyeah
Let’s start at the beginning: Without ants, the world would not be a good place to live.
Worldwide, around 12,500 different species of ants co-exist in almost every environment: Urban kitchens and bathrooms, forest and jungles, your pants… ants can make themselves at home almost everywhere! Even in the hottest deserts and coldest mountains, you’ll met an ant. Ants differ in size, colour, and design, and yet, all of them have one thing in common: Without them, the planet would look very different. 🌿
Ants are an important part of our eco-system.
Even though they are small, ants have a huuuuuuuugge impact on the environment. They are important ecosystem engineers, decompose leaves and dead animals, and steal seeds just to hide them in new places, resulting in the beautiful natural diversity we call life. With all their quick digging, they areate the soil, which is important for the growth of every single plant. For instance, without ants, the mycelium network, the most important interconnected system made of mushrooms that exists right under our feet, could not thrive either. Check out the ‘Fantastic Fungi’ documentary to learn more about this fascinating topic! 🍄 Some ant species can carry 1000 times their body weight - just imagine what we humans could achieve with this super skill?
The Internet is a baby compared to the ‘Ant-ernet’.
Ants are way more advanced in their communication skills than we humans ever will be 🤳. While we still have trouble saying “I love you” or “Well done”, and our inability to talk to each other properly results in endless therapy sessions, divorces, and sometimes even world wars, ants communicate with each other chemically through pheromones and in an algorithmic pattern. As a collective, they can thus make decisions by sheer observation, processing complex information such as the sun’s position, wind direction, slopes, odours, number of steps that have to be taken to reach a new prosperous goal (e.g. your plate of afternoon snack goodness) and share it with the entire gang… all WITHOUT A SINGLE SOUND. Wow! 🤩
Given the fact that ants don’t have ears, this makes complete sense. Ants listen through their feet, translating vibrations from the ground into orders and directions, and add additional information through their highly developed sense of smell. Another amazing feature is that ants don’t have lungs, but breath entirely through their skin. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body, and carbon dioxide leaves the same way. Now that’s what you call truly ‘deep breath’! 😂
Ants are also an example of absolute girl power. 💖 All workers, soldiers, and, of course, the queen ants, are ladies. Together, they work in the colonies, nurture babies, gather food, dig tunnels, expand nests, build traps, fight predators, conserve water, act as paramedics when one of their members is injured, and even fight battles. BOOM! Male ants, however, are just there for reproduction, and die shortly after it. Oh well.
If you still need to be convinced how amazing these little creatures are then go check out this short video about what’s going on inside an anthill:
We need to learn from ants on how to work together.
Ants are hard-working, diligent, responsible, brave and put their tribe always first, without ever forgetting their specific role in the community. Their true super power is the fact that they work together for a common vision (safe space, enough food, many babies), and never loose sight of it. Why can’t we humans agree that we need the same as every ant: peace, enough space and food for every species (humans, animals, plants), health, and a bit of happiness? 🤗
We have the unique opportunity right now to stand up for us and the less fortunate, and close the gaps in our social fabric in order to to create a new, positive, more equal reality for all of us. 🌿☀️🌺
The future lies in our hands.
This 1 min 30 sec minute clip is part of a dense, yet brilliant documentary (don’t mind the style, the message is key), explains why we technically have to become ants to save the world. 🐜
So, let’s get to work, and practise the art of co-creation.
The time to wait for others to save the world has come to an end. Like an ant, each of us has to now pro-actively do our part to change the collective experience. And even though it sounds big and scary, it is actually super simple:
1. Choose any area that is close to your heart.
2. Work in your immediate environment.
3. Go and make it better!💖
Here a few examples:
You love animals? 🐯 Raise money for a dog shelter, develop an app to support adoption processes, go and feed the streeties in your lane, or get involved in animal rights and raise awareness.
You love nature? 🌱 Plant trees. Teach your love and knowledge about nature to kids (and their parents). Write books and articles, set up wonderfully looking Instagram accounts and talk about why we need nature. If you are a musician, write a song about it, too!
You detest inequality that you see everyday around you? ✊ Ask your maid or guard what she or he needs, and help their family out. Donate money to NGOs supporting migrants. Buy bus tickets, sanitary packs for women, or children’s cloth and gift it to the labourers waiting to go back home. If you love to cook, open up a free food kitchen.
You run a successful business? 💸 Make it more eco-friendly. Pay your people more. Add a donation percentage to each customer transaction. You have the power to reach critical scale the fastest!
Not knowing where to start is not an excuse anymore - if you read this, you can always ask me for ideas. 😉 Do your part, use your talents and whatever is possible in your capacity, and make the world a better place. Every little action counts! 🙏
Let’s go back to our new BFF’s: the ants.
As we all learnt now, ants are amazing, and they need us to save their environment, just like we need them to have a healthy planet to live on. So next time you find yourself with an ant crawling up your leg, please please please don’t kill it, but instead, give the girl a high five, admire its amazing strength, endurance and beauty - and then put it back on earth. 🌿
If you find yourself with a crawly invasion in your kitchen, bathroom or balcony, check out these 6 completely natural and easy to-do-tips to peacefully co-exist with this amazing little beings. And while you are at it, check out Agnes Obel’s enchanting live performance of “The Curse”. 💖 Trust me: You will listen to it on repeat!
Have a wonderful week ahead! I will be back next Tuesday with “Create the future #3”. 🙏Thanks to my friend Mrinal who inspired this article! 🤗
With love from Goa,
Isabelle 🌿
*Expect when you ship off to Antarctica, the only place where so far no ant has been found.
The Curse Lyrics:
And the people went into their hide, they oh
From the start they didn't know exactly why, why
Winter came and made it so all look alike, look alike
Underneath the grass would grow, aiming at the sky
It was swift, it was just, another wave of a miracle
But no one, nothing at all would go for the kill
If they called on every soul in the land, on the moon
Only then would they know a blessing in disguise
The curse ruled from the underground down by the shore
And their hope grew with a hunger to live unlike before
The curse ruled from the underground down by the shore
And their hope grew with a hunger to live unlike before
Tell me now of the very souls that look alike, look alike
Do you know the stranglehold covering their eyes?
If I call on every soul in the land, on the moon
Tell me if I'll ever know a blessing in disguise
The curse ruled from the underground down by the shore
And their hope grew with a hunger to live unlike before
And the curse ruled from the underground down by the shore
And their hope grew with a hunger to live unlike before
