Summer World Quotes

“Somewhere there is a check on their natural rate of increase, and you can be sure of one thing—that if they could tell us what they wanted at any one time, they would vote to obliterate the forces that hold them in check, the forces that ensure their long-term benefits. And so, probably, would we, if we voted merely on the basis of our individual interests.”
― Bernd Heinrich, Summer World: A Season of Bounty – Animal Migration, Plant Survival, and the Complex Interactions of Nature on a Warming Earth

“Each of the 630 pupae killed by Gambrus hatched not just one wasp but, on average, thirty-three. That is, these pupae represent 630 × 33 = 20,790 individual ichneumon parasitoids, which could potentially produce 20,790 × 33 = 686,000 more parasitoids in the next generation, and this wasp can have more than one generation in a year. One”
― Bernd Heinrich, Summer World: A Season of Bounty – Animal Migration, Plant Survival, and the Complex Interactions of Nature on a Warming Earth