Endangered Species...

I'd like put in a commentary from the National Geography magazine - January 2009 Issue; Article 'Endangered Species'. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/endangered-species/klinkenborg-text

The very last paragraph of the article states....

'We have no way of guessing how long our own kind will survive, but one thing is certain. The better the chances of survival for the plants and animals and insects you see in the photographs - and for all their endangered kin - the better our own chances will be.'

You can read the rest of the article at above link, also the photo gallery as well.

When I read this, I agree wholeheartedly, because what we do to our world is what we pass on to our children. How we treat those who or what are different, we look at ourselves and wonder why we get treated the way we do.

For instance, 14 children by artificial means, serves what purpose? I'm not saying that those babies do not deserve to live; what kind of natural resources will these babies get when they get older? I'm not an atheist by nature, I do not think God would appreciate being looked up on as a excuse for a reason to have so many children. I love large families, but to who and what's expense?

What lesson are we teaching our children - it is ok to make the world do what humans want to do? How about just living in the balance of the world, traditional tribal beliefs (Native Americans, Aborigines, etc) acknowledges respect and 'trades' that provide balance in the area in which they live in.

Call me a traitor if you may, the American Dream has gotten unrealistic, too many new houses, cost prohibitive, land devoid of living (other than grass), when there are many houses looking for love and fixing up, lands that need tending to and these are familiar and old stomping grounds for animals. We can name many things that the American Dream emphasizes but haven't we gotten off the reason why there is an 'American Dream'? I'd like to give you an unAmerican example - the city Dubai in in the United Arab Emirates is creating man made islands, snow in a mall, and so on violating the very environment in which the folks, animals, etc live in...a desert next to the Persian Gulf.

The human and the societal views conflict on basis of behavior that neglect the reason why we are biologically dependent on the world itself. Society says we need to have money and it controls how we live our life, other than thinking that we're 'better' than what the world has offered us. Humans are as fragile as any other animal, insect or plant. The world does not bend to our whims, we do. We have survived over thousands of years by working with the environment and what is available.

Humans are animals, they belong to the Mammalian Class under the Animalia Kingdom. Our closest relatives are the chimpanzees and bonbons (those wild ones), our next closest is the apes and monkeys. Yes we are different, but how different? Different enough to consider ignoring our mortality? Let me give you some other comparisons - dogs and wolves, domestic cats and tigers/lions, grizzly bear and polar bear, frogs and toads...countless; how about this, dinosaurs and birds? The variety of trees and how even some survive the desert and the Artic cold....countless. How are we any different from them?

Societal views provide impact on how humans view themselves. Superior, smart (certainly not wiser), adaptive (not the only ones to do so) and you can name a few other types. Do you know why Africans are darker than Europeans? Why do Spaniards/Italians have darker skin than British and Laplanders? Why do the Irish have light colored eyes compared to the Greeks? Why do Asians eat more fish than Native Americans? Why are Africans more resistant to malaria than Europeans? Why were the Native Americans nearly decimated by smallpox then later forcibly removed from their lands? Why do we continue to think we are superior? We wage war upon ourselves and the envrionment in which we live in. Our pattern of behavior is the same as any dog that marks its territory or the howler monkeys who yell to keep marauders away from their territory...the difference here is that they walk with the pattern of the envrionment, not try to change it to meet their needs.

Because we need a fancy home on the Galapagos Islands means we don't care about the endemic species that live there. We need coffee beans so badly that we can't respect the natural environment in which it grows in, we got to mow down the rainforest to make room for coffee crops or in another case for medicine, when natural homegrown plants will do. We got to have something so irrelevantly important that we would endanger our world just to please our needs.

This is a physical world, a living ecosystem that is abused by majority of the human race over one insignificant piece of paper or coin - money, or it's basic definition - wealth. If nature dicates that an animal, plant, insect, bird needs to die in order for the others to survive, that's natural because the envrionment is a natural process...to be respected.

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." - Tribe Unknown. A fitting thought to this blog.

A few suggestions -

• A new house built? Plant trees!!! Plant flowers!!! Appreciate the wildlife.
• Have air conditioning? Turn it off for one day (I'd prefer a few days), fling wide open your doors and windows and enjoy the breeze. (If you have had trees already, you'd be already cooler than you think!)
• Plant vegetables and fruits, yes you will get annoyed by those wildlife stealing food but you know there are other plants that do prevent wildlife from eating those food you planted. That way you don't shoot the wildlife or set traps for them. They'll be fresh and it's a nice ice breaker for your neighbors and your friends may appreciate the extra food. Plus it doesn't cost that much.
• Show your children that there is more to life than just TV, Wii or other electronic/technological stuff. They'll be healthier for it and so will you.
• I'm sure y'all can come up with something....