I'll post at the end of the challenge the stats on how many people click this link compared to the other 25. It will be remarkably lower. This post is what I consider adult content. Children need to be taught hope. Adults know that hope is real. Life is real. Life has no guarantees. And so Adults, lets look at the reality of mass extinctions.
Geologic Eras are marked by mass extinctions. 600 million years ago, invertebrates ruled the Earth. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth 150 million years ago. They have posited that a massive cooling of the Earth and Cloud of Dust from an asteroid strike could have caused the extinction of dinosaurs.
A few species of large reptiles live on such as alligators and dinosaurs. We are all enamored with dragons. Were there large reptiles in man's history that fuel the almost worldwide concept of the dragon? We will never know. But what we do know is that the world is experiencing mass extinctions of flora and fauna. This truly in geologic time is the end of the Cenozoic Era.
What can one person do? They can do very little. You can change your habits and reduce your consumption of energy. You can approach household items with the adage, reduce, reuse and recycle. You can reduce your use of pesticides and herbicides and promote the formation locally of natural areas.
What you can do on a larger scale is not repeat the scoffing that environmental problems are just a tree-huggers baloney. I come from very humble roots in the United States. My predecessors are what were called rednecks. They acquired a rough leathery neck from working in the sun. My lineage does not lend me to some ivory tower holier than thou environmental fanatic. It does give me the humility to know I am just part of the world not it's controller.
Psychologically I understand not acknowledging a problem because it's solution is so immense. I don't believe in teaching children the gloom and doom aspect of environmental science. You teach them that we can find solutions if we are so determined.
I also believe you teach children there is a trade-off for everything. Everything has a price. Does the short term satisfaction merit the long term detriment.
We feel sad that lions, the great Apes, tigers and large mammals are endangered. We pat ourselves on the back that the Bald Eagle population is increasing. We don't acknowledge that the acidification of the world's oceans along with overfishing may decimate all salt water vertebrate species by 2048.
With not acknowledging how humans affect the environment, we don't acknowledge the environment's affect on humans. In that by not protecting the environment better. Humans are also on the extinction list.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/19/world/rio-red-list-extinction-species/index.html
https://www.zsl.org/conservation/news/invertebrates-on-the-brink
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/global-alarm-sounded-over-dramatic-decline-in-bird-fish-mammal-populations-1.758556
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/12/03/117914/
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31359188
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jan/03/bumblebees-study-us-decline
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/salt-water-fish-extinction-seen-by-2048/
http://sites.duke.edu/dukeresearch/2012/07/24/lemurs-most-threatened-mammals-on-the-planet/
Science activities for the busy teacher. This blog will be participating in the A to Z challenge for April 2016. Posts are abbreviated for visitors. Pertinent links for more in-depth information are provided. Warning to non-teachers, comments will get very honest answers concerning anything unsafe to do in a classroom. Teachers would not take it personal. Neither should you. Safety is first.
Very thought_provoking. I sincerely hope it is not too late to reverse the trend toward extinction of some of the world's most beautiful creatures. Can you imagine a world without lions...??
ReplyDeleteappreciate this post
ReplyDeletePeople tend to think of their own little sphere. The problems are so big and the opinions so varied, with each side having loud and often obnoxious voices. I hope the younger generations are smarter than ours and look ahead.
ReplyDeleteSusan Says
Definitely food for thought and striking the right balance by telling the truth while fostering hope.
ReplyDeleteI just posted on my favorite Allosaur, Nessie, albeit presumably dead by now.
ReplyDeleteI have fought the fight over climate change in debates with "we need more proof" people, and decided that it's best to combat with the concept that, even if you don't believe what we do affects the planet, shouldn't we TRY to live in a cleaner, less polluted, less disease inducing state?
You make excellent points here, Ann. "A trade-off for everything"—YES. We should all have been taught this; it should be part of our culture. Instead, we choose to believe fairy tales about how we've been given the world and everything in it, not as caretakers but as greedy, unconscionable tyrants. We will pay the price. We already are paying it. And we still refuse to see. Indeed, nature will survive—because she can adapt. We, on the other hand, cannot. We need oxygen, and water. People speak about "nature conservation", but it's really about our preservation. The day we see that—understand it, fully—is the day we'll change this around.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope it happens before it's too late.
Fabulous post, Ann. Fabulous.
Guilie @ Life In Dogs