These in turn are eaten and the energy is processed upward through the food web, or they produce waste matter that becomes a food and energy source for other species. Eventually, the matter cycles through the entire system. In both Bombay and on the reef, gardeners, cleaners, sanitation engineers, construction workers, and miners work together in a densely woven web of mutual dependence. But there is one key difference between these two systems. The reef is a model of efficiency.
Nothing is wasted.
Matter is constantly being recycled and reused, with the least possible amount of energy expenditure. The relationships within the web of life facilitate an economy of thrift, as species avail themselves of the free services provided by one another. Bombay, on the other hand, symbolizes a system that expends incredible amounts of energy to work against the basic fact of ecological interdependence. Humans prefer to conquer natural systems rather than cooperate with them. Rather than avail ourselves of the gift of bipedalism, for example, we prefer to transport ourselves in three-ton chariots of iron and steel powered by controlled explosions of fossilized vegetative matter.