I was laying (or is it "lying?") in bed last night when I indulged my bad habit of scrolling through Twitter before falling asleep. Bad idea. It's always a bad idea, but I read an article that truly alarmed me. Of all the things, of all the horrific stories in the news (especially on Twitter), this one won't leave my brain.
Maybe that doesn't seem so bad upon first glance, but the stat is truly terrifying. Nearly one-third (one-third! 30%!) of North American birds have just disappeared over the last 50 years. Gone. Vanished.
I really love birds. I've noticed that my interest in birds has steadily increased, mostly since being at the lake in a setting where they flit, chirp, and nest right outside our windows. When I'm on the deck and there are no whirring boat engines, target practice gun shots, or early morning chain saws, their twittering creates the most pleasing and peaceful background noise. Combined with the light breeze through the oak leaves, glittering sun on the lake, and water lapping at the shore, it's my idea of utter tranquility.
So there is the layer of trying to imagine places without that sound that is alarming, sure, but it's also a bit more concerning than that. How does this massive shift in bird populations affect other species? What happens if other species start dying off too (fyi, humans are a species...)? What does their disappearance say about the state of the earth? What the heck is wrong with us that we don't realize that something is seriously wrong and that our trajectory is troubling to say the least? All of those horrific, dystopian, apocalyptic books that I spent nearly a decade consuming will move from the fiction to the non-fiction shelf.
It's infuriating to read an article like this, and there are countless others about the scientific evidence of climate change's impacts, and have that juxtaposed with leadership that denies, ignores, and actively works against strategies and policies that would at least give the earth a fighting chance. All to bolster their power and financial position while ensuring that the rest of us (oh yes, all of the rest of us but mostly those most at-risk) will undoubtedly suffer. It makes me sick. Disgusted and absolutely disillusioned about the current state of the world, much less the future. Sure, I'm a pessimist, but I don't see a way back from this. And if one is miraculously found amidst the turmoil, chaos, and declining state of democracy, it's going to be too late for us anyway.
Have a great weekend. Live it up while you can.
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