What’s Blooming Near You?

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
—Rachel Carson

[Photo by N. J. Jackson.]

Sharing the Stage with Groundhog Day…

Today is World Wetlands Day, a single day reserved to rouse awareness for the importance of wetlands—not just for the plants and creatures who reside in them, but also for the critters just passing through (like these Whooping Cranes migrating through Kentucky and searching for a resting spot).

You can spread the word about wetlands by sending a favorite someone an e-card.

“[T]he meeting of land and water…keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and the relentless drive of life. Each time I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings.”
—Rachel Carson

[Photo of Purple Gallinule in the Wakodahatchee Wetlands by Jake Paredes; photo of migrating Whooping Cranes from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.]

SH-HHH-HH… A Mainstream Press Mistake Might Just Save Tigers from Extinction

Earlier this week, these were the appalling numbers released in the news about the Asian tiger population:

In 1990, there were an estimated 100,000 tigers in the wild. Today, only 3,200 exist.

Last month on Lull, I gave you the dire stats on the lion population. And I warned you about the tigers’ plight as the CITES convention drew near. But this is worse than I thought. Whereas it took 50 years to eliminate 95 percent of the world’s lions, it took only 20 years to do similar damage (97 percent) to the world’s tigers.

Was this really true?! The numbers were so catastrophic I felt compelled to investigate. And guess what?

I couldn’t verify all those numbers through any animal conservation Web site or through the U.N., the organization that allegedly released the numbers to the press.

Somebody somewhere made a mistake that news media are now disseminating around the world. At least, I think that’s what happened. I’m waiting to hear from Time magazine’s editor on the subject.

“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”
—Attributed to Mark Twain*

The real numbers are still grim. It’s true that there are only about 3,200 tigers left in the wild. And it’s true that at one time the population was around 100,000—in the early 1900s. But before you sigh a breath of relief, consider that in the early 1990s, there were a maximum 7,500 tigers in the wild. In the last 20 years, we’ve cut the creature’s population by about half.

Though depleted habitat is partially to blame for the tiger’s situation, Eastern traditional medicine practices are the bigger culprit. The black market for products derived of tiger parts is especially lucrative in China, where an expanding middle class can afford tiger-based delicacies and remedies. The Environmental Investigation Agency estimates that at least one tiger is killed daily for this market—even pregnant tigers.

This is the Year of the Tiger, according to the Chinese Zodiac. By the next Year of the Tiger in 2022, there may not be any tigers left in the wild.

“[M]an is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself. … I think we’re challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.”
—Rachel Carson

* Note: Quotations are pliable, too. I couldn’t verify this one, but it’s most often attributed to Twain. Yet Twain was actually riffing on John Adams, the originator (supposedly) of “Facts are stubborn things.”

[Photo above by Craig Kasnoff.]

How Are We Today?

You don’t have to “believe” in climate change to realize our world is in peril. Consider this stat published in National Geographic last month:

Fifty years ago, 450,000 lions roamed the Earth. Today, their number has dwindled to 20,000.

I dare anyone to do the math and deny the tragic story behind the equation.

Acoustic biologist Katy Payne recounts in Silent Thunder her encounter one night with a low-hanging branch, which left her with a superficial but bloody head wound. The African scouts she was with began moaning—and didn’t stop moaning until they saw the next morning that she would be fine. The Shona people Payne worked with had a strong sense of bonding—of “we.” If one person hurts, everyone hurts. “If you are well, then I am well, too,” they would say.

To be stewards of our planet, we would be wise to take this Shona perspective one step further and include all elements of all ecosystems into our bonded circle. “I am well if the Himalayan black bear is well, too.”

However, as I wrote in “Closing the Book on Salt,” the Himalayan black bear is far from being well. It’s being poached for common salt, among other things.

This one problem seems easy to address in my mind. Companies usually engage in philanthropic endeavors, and one of the big salt companies could make Myanmar poaching AND mountain tribes its charitable effort: Donate iodized salt to the tribes. The people stay healthy, the animals get to live, and the big salt company balances out its destruction-by-mining business (sort of).

Of course, halting the demise of the lion populations—or of any other creature or organism in areas shared with humans—is not so easy. Solutions must be good for both wildlife AND people. As Payne writes:

“[T]he community that includes us all is larger than any of us knows, and its health reflects the quality of the relations between all of its parts. I am well if you are well. I am well only if you are well, too.”

When I saw that NG stat about lions, I thought of Rachel Carson—the pioneer ecologist who first warned the world of the dangers of pesticide use—who once said:

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?’”

[Pics of lions and elephants from the African Wildlife Foundation.]