Scarified -- Scratching the Surface or Digging Deeper?

I had the privilege to hear eminent biologist and conservationist E.O. Wilson speak on protecting the planet's biodiversity at the National Academy of Sciences on April 2. This is a man who seems to appreciate the richness of vocabulary almost as much as the rich diversity of species filling the planet, as he sprinkled his talk with terms like supercilious, venerability, and chimera as well as some earthier words like stupid. There's a reason he's a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his writings.

While answering a question from the audience, he mentioned a recent excursion to a pond where, he said, "the surrounding forest had been scarified," leaving the animals that came to the pond to breed little place to shelter. Scarified. It sounds so harsh, that hard c followed by the rasping r. It brought to my mind an image of desolation. Yet, when I sought out the term's exact meaning in the dictionary, it seemed at first blush to mean something less devastating.

The foremost definition of scarify in dictionaries is a variation of, "to make a number of cuts or scratches in the surface; to cover with scratches or incisions." Certainly, scarification still wouldn't be a good thing for the wooded area surrounding the pond, but it doesn't sound that terrible. Does that mean Wilson misused the term? Plucked a rhinestone rather than a diamond when riffling through his bag of vocabulary gems? Should he have used razed instead?

Well, a secondary definition of scarify is from an agricultural context, "to break up or loosen the surface of, especially soil." It refers to the rows of jumbled, overturned earth after a tiller has rumbled through. Perhaps the scene Wilson visited bore the marks of undergrowth clearing and soil disruption, but not wholesale slash and burn of all growth. If so, razed would be overkill and scarified could fit the bill.

Wilson's talk on the importance of protecting the biodiversity of Earth and how we can do that mixed optimism and pessimism. The 21st century, he said, "is a time when we will either settle down or finish wrecking the planet." He went on, "we could lose half the animal and plant species on Earth by the end of the century. The loss, even if we can slow it, will inflict a heavy price in wealth, security and spirit....The radical reduction of world biodiversity is the folly our descendants will least likely forgive us because they will remember that a thousand years from now." But he added, "if we pass through the bottleneck we are in now, that combination of continuing overpopulation, of very high and rising per capita consumption, if we find that the quality of life is more important than the amount of consumption and stuff we own, then the 22nd century, I believe, will be a paradise." Well said!

Dictionary Definition
Pronounced: [skār'ə-fī']
Root: from Old French scarifier, via late Latin from Greek skariphasthai meaning ‘scratch an outline,’ from skariphos meaning ‘stylus’
1. To make a number of scratches or slight incisions in a surface.
2. To make sore or wound; figuratively, to distress deeply, lacerate, as with severe criticism
3. To break up or loosen a surface (ground).