According to this article, half of the Great Barrier Reef has disappeared. That’s very sad.
While I completely understand the naivete of wanting to save all the beautiful land, animals and air that make our blue dot so rich, I do think it’s important to periodically stop and appreciate nature’s delicacy and magnitude. It can be incredibly calming, and serve to remind us just how recently humans became a part of the ecosystem.
Disregarding other life on the planet, or even seeing it as “secondary,” is ignorant and dangerous. We are all hanging in a fragile balance, and no one has threatened that more than we humans. Even if you believe that people were somehow placed at the top of the biology hierarchy (despite the more impressive history of folks like the goliath frog), it can’t be denied that the creature with the highest level of intelligence should be protecting and preserving those with lesser perceived brain power.
I’m not worried about saving the planet – the planet will be just fine until something larger comes along and smashes it to bits. And even then it won’t feel a thing. No. This third rock will survive, as it has so many times before.
It’s us, and our way of life, that are at stake here. I accept that someday the sun will blink and die, and that mass extinction is always a possibility. I also accept that, before that time, I will die in old age, assuming a bus doesn’t take me out first.
Just as with my own physical health, I hope to put the odds in Earth’s favor. Our control is limited, but why not do what we can to hang on to this beauty as long as possible?
With that, pause for nature:
Snowdonia, North Wales
Huangguoshu Falls, China
Orange Albino Corn Snake
Morning Glory Flower
Moraine Lake, Canada