Rebecca Giggs Explains How Very Small Beings Are Often Responsible For Vast Surges of Life

Emergence Magazine is an online publication with annual print edition exploring the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality. As we experience the desecration of our lands and waters, the extinguishing of species, and a loss of sacred connection to the Earth, we look to emerging stories. Our podcast features exclusive interviews, narrated essays, stories and more.

This month we move from Initiation into Ashes with five stories from Chapter Two. When so much has been stripped away, how do we bear witness to ruin? How do we continue to be present with that which remains? We begin with the sudden disappearance of the bogong moth in alpine Australia. As writer Rebecca Giggs traces the moths journey from superabundance to apocalypse, she considers how very small beings are often responsible for vast surges of life.

Emergence Magazine, Vol 3: Living with the Unknown explores what living in an apocalyptic reality looks like through four themes: Initiation, Ashes, Roots, and Futures. Every two months we’ll release a new chapter online. Experience “Chapter Two: Ashes.”

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Listen to the rest of this story on Emergence Magazine’s website or by subscribing to the podcast.

Rebecca Giggs is an award-winning writer from Perth, Australia. She writes about ecology, environmental imagination, animals, landscape, politics, and memory. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Best Australian Science Writing, and other publications. Fathoms is her first book.