Life in the City

When our kids were little, my husband lovingly refurbished a toy zoo his mother had made for him, with old-fashioned bars on the cages for little toy animals. It had deteriorated in storage over the years, so he replaced all the bars with little painted dowels. As soon as our small son opened it on Christmas day, he set about snapping those little dowels. We did not have the foresight to know that at that age, our son would be more fascinated by that “snap” than by imagining a zoo full of exotic animals.

Unlike my husband and me, God knew when he designed the world that people would not always obey his mandate to act as caretakers of creation. He commanded us to spread out and fill the earth, but he knew that with that expansion after Adam and Eve sinned, humans would create noxious chemicals, drop war bombs, and turn out mountains of trash.

We certainly have a responsibility to exercise wise stewardship over creation even as we increase in population and production. But God is not surprised by the destruction that humans have wrought on nature.

In his ingenious design, the Creator endowed his flora and fauna with built-in genetic toughness to survive adverse conditions in our fallen world—and for some creatures, even in the adverse conditions caused by humans. But his design extends beyond the inner workings of organisms to how they relate to each other and the world around them. In fact, if we look in the world’s big cities, we see evidence that even as our development encroaches into nature’s territories, nature pops up in our cities, whether we build them up or tear them down.

Built to Rebound

In our fallen world, natural disasters and human-caused destruction abound, such as the war in Ukraine and the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. But God engineered the world’s ecological system with a brilliant built-in strategy to recover from disasters. Fungi and hardy plants, known as pioneer species, sprout easily in seemingly desolate places, paving the way for more species by providing biomass that becomes fertile soil, food, and habitat for invertebrates that find their way into the recovering area. Opportunistic bird species follow the food (plants and insects), dropping seeds for more types of plants along the way. A complex ecosystem arises quickly if left alone.

The most dramatic example of ecological recovery, of course, followed Noah’s flood, which God sent to punish humanity’s wickedness. The earth was scoured by water and obliterated by volcanoes and moving tectonic plates, but vegetation soon took hold again. Only about 280 days after the flood started, even before Noah left the ark, the dove brought him the olive leaf (Genesis 8:6–11).

Once the animals left the ark, they spread out across the globe, along the way helping to propagate vegetation. From there, variations within each kind led to the vast diversity of plants and animals we have today. But those varieties didn’t change into new kinds of organisms—the cats that trotted off the ark diversified into many types of cats, but they did not become dogs or monkeys.

Adapting to Disasters

Apart from natural disasters, wide-scale wars wreak substantial damage on nature. During World War II, millions of tons of explosives were dropped in Europe, temporarily creating landscapes of concrete rubble where cities once flourished. But nature quickly invaded the ruins. In the summer of 1941, after the Blitz, when the Germans bombed London for months, 27 plant species had already taken hold in London. By 1945, biodiversity had jumped dramatically, with 157 species of plants thriving in the city.1 In Germany, a botanist came home to Münster after the war to find that pussy willows, birches, elders, strawberries, and yellow flowers had sprung up all over the damaged city.2

Most cities in Europe cleared away the rubble and rebuilt after the war, but West Berlin was in a unique situation. Surrounded by political enemies and soon literally walled off from the rest of the world, West Berliners could not haul the bombed remains of buildings out of the city. Instead, to make space to rebuild, they piled the debris up in green spaces, known as brachen (fallow fields). Scientists in West Berlin kept meticulous records of the biodiversity in these brachen over the decades following the war, and the study of urban ecology took off with the publication of their findings.

They discovered that many native species thrived in the weedy lots and piles of rubble, which were quickly taken over by vegetation. Many plants and animals were also adapting to the changed surroundings.3

God's Natural Design Accelerated Recovery

In Norway, flowers flourish in a bomb crater from World War II.
Photo by ASSEN2015 (CC BY-SA 4.0) & WOWyerrr (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Adapting to Expansion

When humans make war, nature is put to the test, but what about when prosperity reigns? The rapid rise of cities in the nineteenth century was a boon for human expansion. Cities across the world expanded by radically transforming the natural setting, not just clearing forests but also building out coastlines to push back the sea, draining and filling in wetlands, and leveling hills.

New York City’s population boomed in the 1800s—growing from 33,000 people in 1790, to nearly half a million by 1850, and by 1900, a staggering 3.4 million. They needed room to expand.

Back then, people thought wetlands were a useless waste of space. So they filled the bogs of the once ecologically rich Hudson Bay estuary and built on the “improved” land. The crowded city was eventually cranking out 29,000 tons of garbage every day, and at one time, it seemed like a win-win to fill up the wetlands with rubbish.

On Staten Island in the 1940s, Freshkills, a biodiverse wetland habitat, looked like potential prime real estate to be claimed and reshaped for development. The plan was to fill it, so the city began filling the marsh with trash and war debris brought over as ballast on ships from Europe. Day after day, thousands of tons of trash were deposited in the Freshkills landfill until it became a mountain range of toxic waste visible from the city’s skyscrapers.4

Eventually, as the environmental movement sprang up, public opinion changed, and people recognized the vast harm caused by such habitat destruction. In the early 2000s, a new plan was initiated to attempt to return the dump to a natural state.

Mountains of trash harbor billions of bacteria and other organisms, and the breaking down of refuse deep in the rubbish heap with little or no oxygen inevitably produces toxic gases and liquids. Since copious levels of toxic chemicals would slow the process of recovery, environmental scientists designed a system to help undo some of this damage. They covered the site with protective layers of synthetic and natural materials called a landfill cap. They installed underground pipes and gas wells to collect the harmful gases and liquids as they were produced. The gas is carried to various processing sites to convert it to natural gas and sold to an energy supplier. Leachate, the liquid produced by the breakdown of landfill materials, is also collected and treated to be safely disposed of.

Since 2001, when Freshkills finally was closed as a landfill, various life forms have been taking over. People now play soccer, frolic on playgrounds, kayak, bicycle, hike, birdwatch, and more in Freshkills Park. Rare birds, including the sedge wren, have moved in, and foxes and other wildlife dart among the tall grasses. The newly restored wetland and capped mounds also served as a buffer during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. In this case, humans helped speed recovery by sealing off the trash, capturing and converting the toxic chemicals it produces, and planting native grasses, but God’s natural design accelerated recovery when the process of ecological succession began.

Mature trees growing at the site were planted by birds following food sources, seeking suitable nesting habitat, and dropping seeds along the way. Hawks, foxes, deer, muskrats, ospreys, terrapins, and much more wildlife call Freshkills Park home.

Other large landfills around the world have begun to follow in the footsteps of Freshkills, evidence of a huge change in perspective toward nature for much of humanity.5

Adapting to Cities

At times people seemed determined to banish any sign of nature from cities. A city is supposed to be a pinnacle of human achievement and control, but nature is messy and unpredictable.

Some animals blatantly defy attempts to keep them away from cities. Many people find birds a filthy nuisance and health hazard, and several cities have attempted to dissuade birds from roosting or nesting on buildings with anti-bird spikes—long metal spikes sticking up from strips of material attached to the building. But the feathered foes won this battle: In at least four cities in three different countries, magpies and carrion crows audaciously ripped off the spiky strips and incorporated them into their nests!6

Even a nuclear bomb could not entirely stop God’s resilient natural warriors. Many said that life would not be possible for 75 years at the site of a nuclear explosion, but within months of the devastating attack on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, witnesses observed symbols of hope pushing through the wreckage of the city. Morning glories, bluets, day lilies, the hairy-fruited bean, and more were shooting up everywhere. Even at the explosion’s epicenter, sickle senna grew.7 Many trees survived the blast and still bear the burn scars from that nightmarish day.8

We might chuckle at these birds’ plucky victory, but no one’s laughing when our nemesis is of the six-legged varieties. Cockroaches are a vital part of any ecosystem, decomposing waste and dead creatures. But in a world that suffers under the curse of sin, cockroaches aren’t welcome in our homes due to the spread of disease and other problems they cause.

However, with their God-given genetic variability, these creepy crawlers have adapted to resist our pest control efforts. Cockroach bait often uses sugar to attract victims, but in buildings with many such traps, cockroaches have lost interest in sugary taste.9 What doesn’t kill roaches makes them stronger. Turns out, roaches possess genetic variations that make them super resistant to toxins and boost their immune system. Ironically, the more pesticides we spray, the more resistant we make roaches to our poison. Pesticide companies are ever researching new methods to control roach populations.

Some animals have adapted to urban life, even as the conditions of the city interfere with their behavioral processes. The pied tamarin’s forest home has been split up into small chunks of forest within the city of Manaus, Brazil, so the primate must deal with traffic noise. The problem is, the tamarins often communicate with each other vocally, and city racket makes that difficult. Scientists have noticed that tamarins in the city increase the use of scent markers while still vocalizing.10 While not ideal for long-distance communication, this behavior shows their flexibility to adapt to changing conditions.

New York City is thought to have the largest urban population of peregrine falcons.

Peregrine falcons apparently view skyscrapers as excellent perches from which to spy food and divebomb. Two peregrines moved into New York City in the 1980s, and now New York boasts the world’s densest population of the famous speedsters. The city offers a delectably abundant menu item: pigeons. This food supply might help explain why the falcons have also moved into London, Delhi, Berlin, and other metropolises.11

Other animals show signs of physiological adaptions. In the United Kingdom, red foxes are cool city dwellers, much like coyotes in many US cities. Scientists have noticed that urban foxes are changing. Their snouts are shorter and wider, and their braincases are smaller than those of their country cousins. These changes seem to show the foxes adapting to have a stronger bite capacity and a skull more suitable for snuffling through food containers. After all, they no longer need to be snapping up speedy prey when they can gorge themselves in landfills or dumpster sites.12

The urbanized Puerto Rico crested anole usually live in trees, but those in cities have glass and metal to climb instead. The Creator was aware of this potential need and provided the ability for the city-dwelling anole to adapt to its new challenges with longer legs and stickier toe pads.13

Some animals have adapted to life even as the conditions of the city interfere with their behavioral processes.

Attracted by an abundant food supply, foxes are commonly found in urban settings.

Adapting to Pollution

The city can be a toxic environment with vehicle emissions, chemicals, and other pollution, but God’s design is much sturdier than many realize. Newark Bay has high levels of a toxin called dioxin, from back in the days when toxic waste was seemingly dumped willy-nilly in the nearest body of water. Yet a population of Atlantic killifish thrives in the green water, even though most other Atlantic killifish exposed to similar levels of dioxin fail to reproduce successfully. A slight difference in the DNA of the Newark Bay killifish seems to make all the difference. This same genetic variation has also been observed in fish in three other cities with high levels of pollution.14

In another example of adaptation to polluted environments, pigeons’ feathers are more than just fine-looking flying equipment. Melanin (pigment) binds to metals. So the pigeon’s dark feathers containing more melanin may help draw heavy metals from the bird’s bloodstream. This trait might explain why city pigeons tend to be darker than their rural counterparts.15

Secular scientists credit “urban evolution” with creatures adapting to keep up with our ever-changing metropolises. They say these creatures are evolving on a rapid time scale. These animals are changing, but they are not changing from one creature to another—the image conjured by the word evolution. A more accurate explanation is that built-in genetic flexibility within each kind of creature rises to the occasion in the changing environment. This flexibility serves organisms well when they need to adapt most.

As stewards of God’s creation, we should learn how to live with the wildlife moving into our cities.

Adapting to Living Together

In the 1980s, grey-headed flying foxes descended on Melbourne, Australia, and roosted in the Royal Botanical Gardens, drawn in by the delicious fruit grown in city gardens. The fruit bats, with wingspans over three feet, play an important role in Australia’s ecosystem, pollinating flowering plants in large areas as they sample various types of fruit. But tens of thousands of huge bats roosting in the city, stripping branches, eating people’s fruits from their gardens, and making messes—this is not everyone’s idea of a good thing. In 2003, the bat colony was relocated to Yarra Bend, a park in the city that was selected as a suitable roosting site.16

Many other critters have taken gardens, dumpsters, and urban parks as invitations to the world’s cities. Raccoons, deer, black bears, and coyotes have taken up comfy residence in certain cities in the United States. Boars roam some urban parks in Germany.17

In some cases, people have gone out of their way to make city life easier for some wildlife. In Brazil, inexpensive rope bridges were erected, giving howler monkeys an alternative to using dangerous powerlines to move from one patch of urban jungle to another. Porcupines, opossums, and even sloths in Costa Rica have found such human interventions helpful to avoid streets and other dangers as well.18

Cities serve as habitats for some of earth's most adaptable creatures.

At Home in the City

Some people may view the urban world as a refuge from a hostile natural world, while others who live in asphalt jungles pine for peaceful scenes. Both usually think of the city and nature as opposites. However, far from being simply a realm for humans, cities serve as habitats for some of earth’s most adaptable creatures, thanks to the wisdom of their Creator.

As much as we try to live apart from nature, humans and nature are inextricably connected. Sadly, although some organisms adapt, many species have gone extinct due to human actions. God put creation under our dominion, not for us to be separate from other living things but to steward them. As animals increasingly find themselves at home close to our home, we can best fulfill the mandate God gave us by getting to know these creatures better. The more we understand their physiology and behaviors, the better we can live in harmony with them and mitigate any threats they present to humans as well as threats we could pose to them.

Sinful humans can certainly wreak destruction, but we should, instead, care for creation. However, we can trust that neither natural disasters nor humankind can obliterate the resilient ecological system that God designed. While we grieve destruction and loss of life, we have hope that life will rise from the ashes.