Sorry to be over a week late for this Earth Day homage. I had been thinking about it just before and after last Monday, but was distracted by the protests on college campuses against the ongoing war in Gaza.
Of course, there is a direct link between campus protests and the recognition that caring for our planet is critical. It is most often the young people of our time that point out, sometimes rather aggressively, that we are demonstrating our hypocrisy by claiming to be a Christian nation while promoting war or destroying our only home. That is the overriding reason why I feel a kinship to those young men and women who are standing up for their beliefs in encampments around the country.
Whether time will reward their efforts with some small form of success we are yet to see, but it is the effort that must be encouraged, for if our youth have no ideals, then what are we left with?
For this post I thought I would simply detail a few of the articles about nature which I have read from the National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines.
But first, an anecdote and story about pupfish. In honor of our trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, my wife bought me "Leave Only Footprints" by Conor Knighton. It is the story about a young man who decided to visit every national park in America, in one calendar year. While I have not finished it yet, it has given me many new items for my retirement bucket list.
For those of you who have never heard of the pupfish (and I was one of you), it is a species of fish that lives in one place only, in Death Valley National Park. No sh**! If you wish to get some more detailed insight into this fish, please do some research.
The Devils Hole pupfish, as they are called, live in an aquifer that reflects the fact that Death Valley used to be covered by water, but that over eons, as the water receded, the only water left is contained in a deep cave filled from an underground water source that has not been identified. For some reason, as the water receded, the pupfish was trapped in this isolated pond, but had survived, albeit in small numbers.
As it happened, the author was at the park the day they held their annual pupfish count. Now, of course, this is only as estimate as it is impossible to dive to the bottom of the lake, so the count is basically, how many were spotted.
In 2013, the number was 35, that's 35 left in the whole world! Again, if you so some research, you will find that the fate of these fish was determined in a Supreme Court ruling, yes, THE Supreme Court of the United States, which resulted in an agreement that controlled water being drained from the pool in a way that would preserve the fish and their habitat.
Talk about an environmental success story that would not have been possible for virtually all of man's existence. Makes you wonder how many other unique species were left to die out due to our misguided belief that dominion over the planet means destruction rather than conservation.
Another feel good conservation success story is in the April National Geographic, concerning the whooping crane. Scientists estimate that there were about 10,000 whooping cranes in North America during the 18th and 19th century, but by 1941 there were sixteen. Yes, sixteen!
Now, through habitat protections and preservation, captive breeding and research, about 530 birds traverse the migratory route from their breeding grounds in northern Canada to their wintering area in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. In addition to these 5,000 mile yearly round trip travelers, another couple hundred live year round in Louisiana at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area which is where the active breeding takes place.
Of course, success is relative, if you consider a population only 10% of its original number. Still, the hope is that in the next thirty years, the migratory flock will be self sustaining.
Also in this edition, is an article about fungi. Yuck, you say? Well, as the article states, "they're in us, on us and all around us." OK, I know, that is an even bigger yuck!
But, as it so special about the National Geographic, the article was filled with so much information, that the yuck factor soon disappears. And, considering how many millions of people died from Covid, it behooves us not to understand the microscopic world around us, from which so many of our medicines, as well as pathogens, originate.
And then there are the nudibranchs.
No, this is not a offshoot organization of environmentalists who advocate for nature in the buff.
Nudibranchs (pronounced in a variety of ways, including NEW-duh-branks) are a family of sea slugs that can be as small as the size of the half-moon of your pinkie fingernail up to as long as twenty inches, but what is especially unique is the range of colors and shapes. And the fact that they have not been well researched.
It is just another example of how we take for granted the plethora of animals that have been provided by our Creator to enhance our time on Earth, yet, especially with the fauna of the ocean, about which we are so ignorant. As if these animals don't matter.
If you think about it even for a few seconds, such arrogance suggests that while the force which created such a myriad of life, we know best which animals and plants to care about.
Thanks goodness for people who spend their working and free time, researching and studying pupfish, whooping cranes, fungi and nudibranchs. Perhaps some day they will toil, perhaps not in the limelight, but as least with a similar respect that we exhibit to those whose talents are displayed in our sports arenas, concert venues, executive board rooms, and political rallies.
Oh, by the way, for those who noted that in the article about pupfish, I didn't say how many were counted, the author received a text after he left Death Valley informing him that 115 pupfish were counted that year, 2016. This year, the count reached a 25 year high, 191!
Here are links to other Earth Day posts from the past.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2015/04/happy-earth-day.html
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2021/04/earth-day-2021.html
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/earth-day-2022.html
No comments:
Post a Comment