When Can We List Ourselves as Endangered?
Are Humans at the Endangered Stage?
When bees have reached the doomed designation of being on the endangered species list, does that not spell a certain kind of doom for humanity itself? All the earth science we are ever taught growing up teaches us that bees are the linchpin of our food chain. Without our delightfully buzzing friends that chain unravels. They are what work the whole pollination scene like a boss; well, more like a drone. And we cannot deny their importance.
Bees are so important that the cyber world is itching to explore tiny mechanical bees. Now, the budding scientists have their chance. There will be plenty of buds without the usual buzz to plant the pollen that helps nature do its thing. It will either be mechanical bees or people will have a whole new line of tedious work to do, as usual, pretending to do what nature does best.
Is the Human Race in Denial?
We are quick to deflect or deny the realities of global warming, or climate change, whichever language suits our sensibilities best. Truths about environmental doom are occurring. These realities include rising temperatures, water levels, and storms that bring devastating flooding and take lives. Yet rising water does not concern us. We see computer models of simulated shorelines and think what? Great graphics, it looks so real? More houses on stilts? A booming boating industry? Sure do hope the great minds have been working on solar powered outboard motors.
All this while multiple environmental articles are paying passing respect to the passing away of the Great Barrier Reef. This is an entire ecosystem the watchdogs of the ocean consider wiped out; just gone. Off to the great sea heaven in the sky, perhaps?
Or, Have We Become Jaded, Instead?
Where do these vast patches of our planet go when they die, anyway? Seeing one polar bear clinging to what is left of arctic ice is no longer tugging at the old heartstrings the way it did just a few years ago. Will the truth be inconvenient on when we see pods of whale carcasses littering the shoreline? Or when we cannot breathe because of noxious air? Is that when we will understand the scale of the problem? Maybe along with the boom in the boating industry there will be a huge uptick in the stocks for oxygen tanks and other breathing apparatus?
We may as well add our friends, the trees, to the list of endangered beings on the planet. Gone are the many in our equatorial belt that used to serve as the lungs for the planet. The jungles and tropical rain forests filter carbon dioxide and pump fresh oxygen into the atmosphere. Whether looking for exotic wood or palm oil, so much of the land has been clear-cut, leaving great swaths of dark, barren land.
Technological Progress, at What Expense?
And speaking of dark, barren land, we would be remiss not to feel the planet’s pain for all the fracking underground and oil dredging in tar sands. As we wring every bit of non-renewable resource from our global home and foul our water to the point of it being unpotable, we shrug our shoulders. Nestlé and other corporations feel they are in a prime position once all the water goes poof; market share, and all that. We think the Native Americans staking claim to a somewhat healthy heritage have it wrong somehow. Why stop the progress of a pipeline, when the rewards are so great?
Ah, right; rewards. We have reaped so many rewards as we wiped much of the plants and animals away in the name of progress, haven’t we? One by one, we have kept diligent lists of endangered things. We have our thorough accounting, silently marking the deaths as we cheer the progress. Yet even by keeping track, we may not register the grand imbalance taking place?
Is It a Leap in Dimensional Living?
There is the rub. The internal inklings and feelings so many of us have that there is something so much larger going on. Call it the shift or the leap in dimensional living that we are here to experience and bring forth. Will it take a global cataclysm for us to say we, too, have reached the brink? Are we denying the inevitable? And why are we not doing anything about it?
We are quick, if not almost eager, to mark other animal species on the planet as being endangered. Scientists had said that if the number of bees fall below a certain threshold, it would endanger us. Our precious bees are now endangered. Yet there are few who actively take part in protesting land misuse. Perhaps they equal the number of people who actively plant new trees, or work meager plots of land back to health to save the planet. The rest of us watch our little screens, and send along an emoticon.
What does it take? When can we list ourselves as endangered? Learn more:
http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-conservation/endangered-species-act.aspx
