Opinion | The 2025 Food Web
A “food web”diagram typically lays out nature’s chain of consumption: Phytoplankton gets eaten by krill, which in turn gets gobbled up by squid, which then gets devoured by a seal, which finally becomes dinner for a shark. And so on, in the endless cycle of life. But what if we map out the pecking order of our current, distracted, self-indulgent, entirely anxious world? Who’s consuming what, what is it doing to us, and where might it all end?













Jared Nangle is a cartoonist and illustrator.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are sometips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.