We Are Adding, "Beauty Of The Wildlife"



Ajesh & Kannan



INTRODUCTION
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The previous essays should have made it clear that everything we do affects wildlife. We are the dominant creatures on this planet and we can choose to wipe out most of the species just by continuing on our present course of accelerating population growth and accelerating resource use. To save wildlife requires positive action; it requires changes in life style and changes in our general way of thinking (or not thinking). We must heed the maxim "Think Globally, Act Locally" and realize we are bound with all other forms of life in one gigantic ecosystem. The following are a few of my suggestions of things you can do to help wildlife (and eventually, help yourselves).

USING TIME
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One of the dominant features of our culture is our obsession with "saving time" as though time were something that could be stored in a deep freeze or bank vault. We consume enormous quantities of energy by using "time saving" gadgets from dishwashers to power lawn movers to garbage disposals. We drive powerful automobiles at speeds slightly faster than the law allows to travel to places as quickly as possible. We eat foods in which there is more energy tied up in the packaging than there is in the food itself. All too often the time "saved" is used for trivial amusement: to watch a TV program or play an extra inning of baseball. As individuals, we need to consider the environmental cost of all this collective time saving and act accordingly. Plan long trips for more leisurely driving. Be willing to take the extra time needed to use public transportation or car pools. Make chores into social activities. Take the few extra minutes needed to mow your lawn with a hand mower (and the good, quiet exercise it provides). I am not suggesting a return to living styles of 200 years ago, just some minor adjustments to our present life styles that might reduce such things as air pollution, which is causing atmospheric warming; the demand for dams that destroy streams; and the amount of habitat covered up by garbage.

LIVING WITH BLEMISHES
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Neatness is the enemy of wildlife. Much traditional landscaping, for example, is open and neatly trimmed, with little room for birds and other animals, and it often requires heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides. Let the weeds and bushes grow. Plant native trees. Our demand for unblemished fruit and catsup without insect parts forces the heavy use of pesticides and forces farmers to go to great lengths to control birds and other "pests." Blemished or slightly wormy fruit is still edible. My father had the habit of never eating an apple without taking out his pocketknife and cutting it up. This habit was ingrained from being brought up on a farm in the days before the heavy use of pesticides. Adopting simple habits like this can help to save wildlife (and maybe your own health).

A particularly egregious example of the neatness problem is lawns. Somehow, it is correct in our culture to strive towards a perfect lawn that looks more like an outdoor carpet than something alive. The perfect lawn requires heavy doses of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers to keep the monoculture of grass going, akin to field of subsidized corn. Then, when the grass is ready to be harvested, we cut it with a noisy gas-guzzling mower and throw the harvest away (often neatly wrapped in a plastic bag), clogging our landfills. Meanwhile the excess fertilizer and pesticides wind up in the landscape, often washed into streams or lakes via storm drains, where they have toxic effects on fish, ducks, and other aquatic life. Part of the solution is to think of your lawn as an ecosystem and strive for diversity: appreciate the variety of flowers and grasses that push their way through the dominant grass; enjoy the insects that crawl in it or fly over it. Despite the warnings of the lawn care industry, it is possible to have a patch of green to sit and play on without dosing it with nasty substances. Another part of the solution is to reduce lawn area as much as possible, replacing the grass with low-demand ornamentals or a vegetable garden.