IF THE world's cats and dogs disappeared overnight, millions of people would mourn their furry friends. If beef cattle suddenly ceased to exist, it would create economic crises in America, Argentina and Australia. But what if all of Earth's 22 billion chickens succumbed to a scourge like bird flu? How would humanity cope?
It's a thought experiment whose answers show just how much human civilisation has come to rely on a single species. Without chickens, we would face "a starving world", says Olivier Hanotte, a molecular biologist at the University of Nottingham, UK, who has studied the spread of the chicken around the globe. Close to one-third of the world's meat supply and nearly all of its eggs would vanish. Pandemics and riots could ensue, unleashing a crisis of enormous proportions. This might seem far-fetched given how unremarkable ...
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