Early one morning not long ago, I rose from a chair on my porch in Bethesda to gaze at a row of tall trees that borders the back of our yard. The insistent kuk kuk kuk of a pileated woodpecker had drawn my attention away from the morning newspaper and cup of tea. Suddenly, a flash of black, red and white exploded from the greenery as the big, crested woodpecker swooped across our yard and into a neighbor’s tall oak. My heart leapt at the sight of this gorgeous wild creature — joy seeping into my limbic system, giving me an agreeable rush. This was the wonder of nature at our doorstep.
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| (Eugene and Louise/for The Washington Post) |
About an hour later, my daughter Cary, inside the house, was reviewing the news feed on her smartphone. Coming upon an article that postulated a wholesale decline of the Earth’s insect fauna, she shouted to me to come into the room so she could read me the dire take-home points of this scientific assessment. The end of our bees, butterflies, ants and dragonflies could spell a devastating extinction crisis. Her face showed alarm, and she mourned being a helpless witness to what looked like another potential step toward the downward spiral of our planet’s biosphere.
The drumbeat of news about climate change and ecological degradation is deeply demoralizing. The Earth is indeed in bad shape, and the trends aren’t encouraging. (July, it turns out, was the hottest month recorded since data collection began.)
Read the story from The Washington Post by Bruce Beehler - “Why doom and gloom won’t help us fight climate change.”
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