Greening the Blue Planet

Unusual role for trees

2008-08-12T17:42:00.008-04:00

Have you ever thought of a tree as a chemical factory? That's how Diana Beresford-Kroeger describes a tree. Today's New York Times has an article about this unusual scientist: Advocating an Unusual Role for Trees.

She has a bioplan for reforesting cities and rural areas with trees according to the medicinal, environmental, nutritional, pesticidal, and herbicidal properties she claims for them, which she calls ecofunctions. Black walnut and honey locusts could be planted along roads to absorb pollutants. A recent study by researchers at Columbia found that children in neighborhoods that are tree-lined have asthma rates a quarter less than in neighborhoods without trees. Through something called phytoremediation, trees remove mercury and other pollutants from the ground. And most of us know trees pull carbon dioxide out of the air and provide us with oxygen to breathe, making trees important in our attempt to stem global warming.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, medical and agricultural researcher, lecturer, and self-defined "renegade scientist" in the fields of classical botany, medical biochemistry, organic chemistry, and nuclear chemistry. One of her books is Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest.
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NOTE: June mentioned in a comment on this post that she had also posted something about this subject. You really should go read it: Friday Fact - Forest Air Bathing.

Can you hear the trees?

2008-08-08T17:28:00.000-04:00

Blue-green algae

2008-06-30T17:52:00.001-04:00

An outbreak of blue-green algae is seen on the coastline of Qingdao, the host city for sailing events at the 2008 Olympic Games, in eastern China's Shandong province Tuesday June 24, 2008. The Qingdao government has organized 400 boats and 3000 people to help remove the algae after Olympic organizers ordered a cleanup. Experts say the algae is a result of climate change, and recent heavy rains in southern China, according to the Xinhua news agency. (AP Photo/EyePress)

Yes, we will have no bananas

2008-06-20T05:19:00.005-04:00

Who knew? This is news to me:

Yes, We Will Have No Bananas
a NYT article by Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.

Here's one paragraph:

That bananas have long been the cheapest fruit at the grocery store is astonishing. They’re grown thousands of miles away, they must be transported in cooled containers and even then they survive no more than two weeks after they’re cut off the tree. Apples, in contrast, are typically grown within a few hundred miles of the store and keep for months in a basket out in the garage. Yet apples traditionally have cost at least twice as much per pound as bananas.

And another paragraph:

Once bananas had become widely popular, the companies kept costs low by exercising iron-fisted control over the Latin American countries where the fruit was grown. Workers could not be allowed such basic rights as health care, decent wages or the right to congregate. (In 1929, Colombian troops shot down banana workers and their families who were gathered in a town square after church.) Governments could not be anything but utterly pliable. Over and over, banana companies, aided by the American military, intervened whenever there was a chance that any “banana republic” might end its cooperation. (In 1954, United Fruit helped arrange the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Guatemala.) Labor is still cheap in these countries, and growers still resort to heavy-handed tactics.

And a summary:

Perhaps it’s time we recognize bananas for what they are: an exotic fruit that, some day soon, may slip beyond our reach.

You really ought to go read the whole article.
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NOTE: The photo shows Cavendish bananas (from Wikipedia), "the only banana we see in our markets," according to this article. There used to be another variety that was tastier, until a fungus called Panama disease wiped it out. And ... it could happen again.

Dubya's denials have cost us

2008-06-04T04:25:00.003-04:00

The Science of Denial (a New York Times editorial published today), says:

The Bush administration has worked overtime to manipulate or conceal scientific evidence — and muzzled at least one prominent scientist — to justify its failure to address climate change.

Its motives were transparent: the less people understood about the causes and consequences of global warming, the less they were likely to demand action from their leaders. And its strategy has been far too successful. Seven years later, Congress is only beginning to confront the challenge of global warming.

The last week has brought further confirmation of the administration’s cynicism. An internal investigation by NASA’s inspector general concluded that political appointees in the agency’s public affairs office had tried to restrict reporters’ access to its leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen. He has warned about climate change for 20 years and has openly criticized the administration’s refusal to tackle the issue head-on.

More broadly, the investigation said that politics played a heavy role in the office and that it had presented information about global warming “in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate-change science made available to the general public.”

Meanwhile, the administration finally agreed, under duress, to release a Congressionally mandated report on the effects of climate change on various regions of the United States. Some of the report’s predictions, like the inevitable loss of coastal areas to rising seas, were not new. Others were, including warnings of a potential increase in various food- and water-borne viruses.

What was most noteworthy about the latter report was that it made it to the light of day. A 1990 law requires the president to give Congress every four years its best assessment of the likely effects of climate change. The last such assessment was undertaken by President Clinton and published in 2000. Mr. Bush not only missed the 2004 deadline but allowed the entire information-gathering process to wither. Only a court order handed down last August in response to a lawsuit by public interest groups forced him to deliver this month.

This administration long ago secured a special place in history for bending science to its political ends. One costly result is that this nation has lost seven years in a struggle in which time is not on anyone’s side.

Lightning displays above erupting volcano

2008-05-30T16:59:00.003-04:00

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile on May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanoes are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them. (Pictures taken May 2, 2008. Carlos Gutierrez/Reuters)

For safety, please insert head in sand

2008-05-18T13:05:00.004-04:00

June at Spatter writes about "ostriches" after discovering over 50% of the people surveyed about global warming are "not very concerned" (11.5%) or "not convinced it's true" (38.9%). Not convinced? Ask the dying polar bears, whose habitat is rapidly melting.

Oh, beautiful for smoggy skies

2008-04-30T02:28:00.003-04:00

Oh beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
~~~ performed by George Carlin
around 1970, when environmental
issues were becoming
a hot political topic
(Many thanks to Susan for this quote, which I hadn't heard before. Click to enlarge poster.)

Eco-exits

2008-04-21T08:56:00.001-04:00

Green funerals make for eco-exits
A woman looks into a coffin made of willow at a 'green funeral' exhibition in London, Saturday April 19, 2008. It's no longer enough to live a greener life, now people are being encouraged to be environmentally friendly when they leave the Earth too. Cardboard coffins, shell-shaped urns and fireworks that can be packed with people's ashes were met by smiles at the Natural Death Center's Green Funeral Exhibition Saturday in London. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Wear BLUE

2008-04-18T17:31:00.006-04:00

Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008
to Vote for NO COAL

Want to stop global warming? Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008! Join millions of people around the world who will be wearing BLUE to signify their vote for NO COAL. Events will be happening April 19th through April 22nd, so...

If you’re attending the Earth Day event on the National Mall in Washington, DC on April 20th, wear BLUE.

If you’re attending another major Earth Day event, wear BLUE.

When you dress in the morning on Earth Day, wear BLUE.

No matter what you’re doing for Earth Day 2008, wear BLUE.

A BLUE shirt, top, sweater or jacket... whatever. Just wear BLUE.

Then, on April 22, make your voice heard. Pick up the phone: Call Congress at 202.224.3121 and ask for an immediate "Moratorium on Coal" -- a halt to the construction of any new conventional coal-fired power plants. Through this Call for Climate event, Earth Day hopes to generate over a million phone calls to Congress!

Your BLUE vote will count. Fifty-nine conventional coal plants were canceled in 2007. That’s over a third of the 151 planned. That happened before millions of people joined together to say No Coal.

BYO Blue for Earth Day 2008. Be the vote that tips the balance.
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Help us get the message out:
. . . send this message to everyone you know
. . . attend an Earth Day event wearing BLUE and
. . . on April 22nd, wear BLUE all day - to work, lunch and dinner
. . . make the call to Congress at 202.224.3121, asking for an immediate Moratorium on Coal

The Urbane Environmentalist

2008-04-11T12:12:00.004-04:00

You need to read Jim Hackler's stuff. He writes as The Urbane Environmentalist and has a sense of humor. He's passionate about green and has been a broadcast news journalist, a college instructor, a stand-up comic, and a featured conference speaker. He wants to be somewhere in the middle between boring and unnecessarily alarming. Go read some of what he's written and see for yourself.

Green Short Story

2008-04-07T04:28:00.000-04:00

We are invited to write a GREEN short story of up to 2,000 words in length for Delta-Sky Magazine. It may employ any tone, from funny to apocalyptic, but must deliberately have some aspect of green as a prevailing presence, or even its theme. By "green" they mean the concern for our environment that is motivating people worldwide to take action to reverse its degradation. To waste less, for example, and to care more.

Click here for the official rules. There's only a week left before it's due on April 15th.

Same urgent message

2008-04-04T22:17:00.003-04:00

Old magazine cover, same urgent message

Climate change

2008-03-21T19:29:00.001-04:00

Dear Bonnie,

Global warming is a problem of unprecedented magnitude and that's why we've launched the largest mobilization campaign ever. Actions by individuals like you will be the driving force behind this campaign and our ultimate victory. We're going to succeed, but I need your help today.

More than 825,000 people have already joined us, but if leaders in business and government are going to make stopping climate change a priority, we need you to urge your friends to get involved today.

We need to grow to 1,000,000 members by April so we can send a loud message that we want action now. Ask all your friends to add their voices.

Thank you,

Al Gore
____________________

My response

Climate change is an urgent issue that requires immediate solutions. That's why I've joined with Al Gore and others around the world who want to halt global warming. Let's be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

We need to send a loud message to leaders in business and government that they must make it a priority to stop climate change, now. That's why I'm asking you to get involved today:

http://wecansolveit.org/onemillion

Together, we CAN stop global warming.

Spring is coming sooner

2008-03-19T14:49:00.005-04:00

Global warming rushes timing of spring
by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer
March 19, 2008

The capital's famous cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited to bloom till around April 5.

In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, a drab little butterfly, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May.

And sneezes are coming earlier in Philadelphia. On March 9, when allergist Dr. Donald Dvorin set up his monitor, maple pollen was already heavy in the air. Less than two decades ago, that pollen couldn't be measured until late April.

Pollen is bursting. Critters are stirring. Buds are swelling. Biologists are worrying.

"The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast," Stanford University biologist Terry Root said.

Blame global warming.

The fingerprints of man-made climate change are evident in seasonal timing changes for thousands of species on Earth, according to dozens of studies and last year's authoritative report by the Nobel Prize-winning international climate scientists. More than 30 scientists told The Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at springtime across the country, in nearly every state.

What's happening is so noticeable that scientists can track it from space. Satellites measuring when land turns green found that spring "green-up" is arriving eight hours earlier every year on average since 1982 north of the Mason-Dixon line. In much of Florida and southern Texas and Louisiana, the satellites show spring coming a tad later, and bizarrely, in a complicated way, global warming can explain that too, the scientists said.

Biological timing is called phenology. Biological spring, which this year begins at 1:48 a.m. EDT Thursday, is based on the tilt of the Earth as it circles the sun. The federal government and some university scientists are so alarmed by the changes that last fall they created a National Phenology Network at the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor these changes.

The idea, said biologist and network director Jake Weltzin, is "to better understand the changes, and more important what do they mean? How does it affect humankind?"

There are winners, losers and lots of unknowns when global warming messes with natural timing. People may appreciate the smaller heating bills from shorter winters, the longer growing season and maybe even better tasting wines from some early grape harvests. But biologists also foresee big problems.

The changes could push some species to extinction. That's because certain plants and animals are dependent on each other for food and shelter. If the plants bloom or bear fruit before animals return or surface from hibernation, the critters could starve. Also, plants that bud too early can still be whacked by a late freeze.

The young of tree swallows — which in upstate New York are laying eggs nine days earlier than in the 1960s — often starve in those last gasp cold snaps because insects stop flying in the cold, ornithologists said. University of Maryland biology professor David Inouye noticed an unusually early February robin in his neighborhood this year and noted, "Sometimes the early bird is the one that's killed by the winter storm."

The checkerspot butterfly disappeared from Stanford's Jasper Ridge preserve because shifts in rainfall patterns changed the timing of plants on which it develops. When the plant dries out too early, the caterpillars die, said Notre Dame biology professor Jessica Hellmann.

"It's an early warning sign in that it's an additional onslaught that a lot of our threatened species can't handle," Hellmann said.

It's not easy on some people either. A controlled federal field study shows that warmer temperatures and increased carbon dioxide cause earlier, longer and stronger allergy seasons.

"For wind-pollinated plants, it's probably the strongest signal we have yet of climate change," said University of Massachusetts professor of aerobiology Christine Rogers. "It's a huge health impact. Seventeen percent of the American population is allergic to pollen."

While some plants and animals use the amount of sunlight to figure out when it is spring, others base it on heat building in their tissues, much like a roasting turkey with a pop-up thermometer. Around the world, those internal thermometers are going to "pop" earlier than they once did.

This past winter's weather could send a mixed message. Globally, it was the coolest December through February since 2001 and a year of heavy snowfall. Despite that, it was still warmer than average for the 20th century.

Phenology data go back to the 14th century for harvest of wine grapes in France. There is a change in the timing of fall, but the change is biggest in spring. In the 1980s there was a sudden, big leap forward in spring blooming, scientists noticed. And spring keeps coming earlier at an accelerating rate.

Unlike sea ice in the Arctic, the way climate change is tinkering with the natural timing of day-to-day life is concrete and local. People can experience it with all five senses:

• You can see the trees and bushes blooming earlier. A photo of Lowell Cemetery, in Lowell, Mass., taken May 30, 1868, shows bare limbs. But the same scene photographed May 30, 2005, by Boston University biology professor Richard Primack shows them in full spring greenery.

• You can smell the lilacs and honeysuckle. In the West they are coming out two to four days earlier each decade over more than half a century, according to a 2001 study.

• You can hear it in the birds. Scientists in Gothic, Colo., have watched the first robin of spring arrive earlier each year in that mountain ghost town, marching forward from April 9 in 1981 to March 14 last year. This year, heavy snows may keep the birds away until April.

• You can feel it in your nose from increased allergies. Spring airborne pollen is being released about 20 hours earlier every year, according to a Swiss study that looked at common allergies since 1979.

• You can even taste it in the honey. Bees, which sample many plants, are producing their peak amount of honey weeks earlier. The nectar is coming from different plants now, which means noticeably different honey — at least in Highland, Md., where Wayne Esaias has been monitoring honey production since 1992. Instead of the rich, red, earthy tulip poplar honey that used to be prevalent, bees are producing lighter, fruitier black locust honey. Esaias, a NASA oceanographer as well as beekeeper, says global warming is a factor.

In Washington, seven of the last 20 Cherry Blossom Festivals have started after peak bloom. This year will be close, the National Park Service predicts. Last year, Knoxville's dogwood blooms came and went before the city's dogwood festival started. Boston's Arnold Arboretum permanently rescheduled Lilac Sunday to a May date eight days earlier than it once was.

Even western wildfires have a timing connection to global warming and are coming earlier. An early spring generally means the plants that fuel fires are drier, producing nastier fire seasons, said University of Arizona geology professor Steve Yool. It's such a good correlation that Weltzin, the phenology network director, is talking about using real-time lilac data to predict upcoming fire seasons. Lilacs, which are found in most parts of the country, offer some of the broadest climate overview data going back to the 1950s.

This year, though, it's the early red maple that's creating buzz, as well as sniffles. A New Jersey conservationist posted an urgent message on a biology listserv on Feb. 1 about the early blooming. A 2001 study found that since 1970, that tree is blossoming on average at least 19 days earlier in Washington, D.C.

Such changes have "implications for the animals that are dependent on this plant," Weltzin said, as he stood beneath a blooming red maple in late February. By the time the animals arrive, "the flowers may already be done for the year." The animals may have to find a new food source.

"It's all a part of life," Weltzin said. "Timing is everything."
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National Phenology Network:
http://www.usanpn.org/

IPCC report on phenological changes:
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-chapter1.pdf

National Park Service on cherry blossoms:
http://www.nps.gov/nama/planyourvisit/cherry-blossom-bloom.htm

University of California at Davis butterfly changes:
http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/education/stat2/data

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee lilac data:
http://www.uwm.edu/mds/gcb_2006.html

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

BYOB ~ eco totes

2008-02-28T21:04:00.012-05:00

Paper breaks down in 2-5 months in a landfill, but can you guess how long it takes for a plastic bag? One thousand years. Yes, that's 1,000 years! Those fly-away plastic bags scorned by environmentalists like me will survive long after our grandchildren's great-grandchildren have turned to dust.

Have you considered taking your own bags when you go shopping? It's all the rage now, and I have three green bags that I keep in the car just for shopping. Mine were inexpensive, but I really like the ones pictured here that cost $8 (left, above) or $7 each (right, above) I like the Milano style, with its single 2-inch strap at $7 (left).

A store that opened a couple of years ago near our bookstore charged twenty-five cents each for bags (I think it was). Other stores give back a nickel if you bring your own bag, according to this USA Today article. Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags annually, and that's reason enough to be concerned.

My green bags (like the one at the left) have inserts to keep the bags flat. I have never tried loading one as full as the one below because I don't know the weight limit. What I like about the ones above is their portability; they wouldn't take much space, unlike mine with the big flat inserts. Yeah, I want one of the mesh bags!

One other note: cashiers at my stores are used to filling bags brought by customers, so you won't raise any eyebrows when you show up with yours.
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BYOB = bring your own bags

The Wall ~ a book by Marlen Haushofer

2008-02-23T14:25:00.005-05:00

Juliet at Crafty Green Poet yesterday published a review of The Wall by Marlen Haushofer:

"It is a beautifully written book and makes the reader ask lots of questions about our ability to be self sufficient, our relationship with the environment and with animals and the meaning of life."

Here's the publisher's synopsis:

"First published to acclaim in Germany, The Wall chronicles the life of the last surviving human on earth, an ordinary middle-aged woman who awakens one morning to find that everyone else has vanished. Assuming her isolation to be the result of a military experiment gone awry, she begins the terrifying work of survival and self-renewal."

I remember a "Twilight Zone" episode on television about the last man on earth. He loved to read and had found the huge public library in New York City. So he was overjoyed. Then he went outside and stumbled (?? or something) ... anyway, he managed to step on (and break) his glasses! Oh, the irony!

Anyway, The Wall sounds like something I should read, so I continued looking for references ... and found a review from Bookends. According to Wikipedia, The Wall is her only novel translated into English. I want to read this book.

Wanna save energy costs?

2008-01-23T03:18:00.000-05:00

Giant newt and tiny frog

2008-01-22T05:22:00.000-05:00

A Gardiner's Seychelles frog rests on a thumb in this undated handout. A giant Chinese salamander that predates Tyrannosaurus rex and the world's smallest frog are among a group of extremely rare amphibians identified by scientists as being in need of urgent help to survive. (Naomi Dook/ZSL/Handout/Reuters)

Giant newt, tiny frog identified as most at risk
by Jeremy Lovell
Mon Jan 21, 5:37 PM ET

A giant Chinese salamander that predates Tyrannosaurus rex and the world's smallest frog are among a group of extremely rare amphibians identified by scientists on Monday as being in need of urgent help to survive.

The Olm, a blind salamander that can survive for 10 years without food, and a purple frog that spends most of its life four meters underground are also among the 10 most endangered amphibians drawn up by the Zoological Society of London.

"These species are the 'canaries in the coalmine' -- they are highly sensitive to factors such as climate change and pollution, which lead to extinction, and are a stark warning of things to come," said EDGE head Jonathan Baillie.

EDGE, which stands for Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered, is a project set up a year ago to identify and start to protect some of nature's most weird and wonderful creatures.

"The EDGE amphibians are amongst the most remarkable and unusual species on the planet and yet an alarming 85 percent of the top 100 are receiving little or no conservation attention," said the project's amphibians chief Helen Meredith.

While last year's launch focused on at risk mammals, this year the focus shifted to neglected amphibians.

"These animals may not be cute and cuddly, but hopefully their weird looks and bizarre behaviors will inspire people to support their conservation," Meredith added.

Not only are the target species unique, the project itself is breaking new ground by using the internet at www.zsl.org/edge to highlight threatened creatures and encourage the public to sponsor conservation.

Global warming and human depredation of habitat are cited as root causes of the problem facing the creatures from the massive to the minute.

The Chinese giant salamander, a distant relative of the newt, can grow up to 1.8 meters in length while the tiny Gardiner's Seychelles frog when full grown is only the size of a drawing pin.

Also on this year's list is the limbless Sagalla caecilian, South African ghost frogs, lungless Mexican salamanders, the Malagasy rainbow frog, Chile's Darwin frog and the Betic midwife toad whose male carries fertilized eggs on its hind legs.

"Tragically, amphibians tend to be the overlooked members of the animal kingdom, even though one in every three amphibian species is currently threatened with extinction, a far higher proportion than that of bird or mammal species," said EDGE's Baillie.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited.

Polar bear's shrinking habitat

2008-01-18T01:34:00.000-05:00

The Upwising Begins

2008-01-09T18:40:00.000-05:00

Global warming ~ US (re)action

2008-01-02T13:10:00.000-05:00

with many thanks to Tom Toles for this chart ... and the time frame mentioned at the bottom:
"What's the time frame on this chart?"
"1980's till the end of the world."

Four gas-buying tips

2007-12-06T18:12:00.000-05:00

EARLY MORNING
Buy in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. The colder the ground the denser the gasoline.

FILL SLOWLY
Do NOT squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. The trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less for your money.

WHEN IT'S HALF EMPTY
Fill up when your gas tank is half empty. The more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine.

AVOID GAS DELIVERY
If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up -- most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

The God Who Can't Be Tamed

2007-11-16T14:52:00.000-05:00

The God Who Can't Be Tamed
Could we be losing more than the land when we destroy it?
by Philip Yancey

In what she later called "the most transporting pleasure of my life on the farm," Isak Dinesen went flying across the unspoiled plains of Africa with her friend Denys Finch-Hatton. In the film version of Out of Africa, the character playing Denys first invited her by saying, "I want to show you the world as God sees it." Indeed, the next few minutes of cinematography come close to presenting exactly that. As the frail Moth airplane soars beyond the escarpment that marks the beginning of the Rift Valley in Kenya, the ground falls abruptly away and the zoom lens captures a glimpse of Eden in the grasslands just below.

Great herds of zebras scatter at the sound of the motor, each group wheeling in unison, as if a single mind controlled the bits of modern art dashing across the plain. Huge giraffes — they seemed so gangly and awkward when standing still—gallop away with exquisite gracefulness. Bounding gazelles, outrunning the larger animals, fill in the edge of the scene.

The world as God sees it — does that phrase merely express some foamy romantic notion, or does it contain truth? The Bible gives intriguing hints. Proverbs tells of the act of Creation, when Wisdom "was the craftsman at his [God's] side … filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presences, rejoicing in his whole world." The seraphs in Isaiah's vision who declared "the whole earth is full of his glory" could hardly have been referring to human beings — not if the rest of the Book of Isaiah is to be believed. At least God had the glory of Nature then, during that very dark time when Israel faced extinction and Judah slid toward idolatry.

God makes plain how he feels about the animal kingdom in his longest single speech, a magnificent address found at the end of Job. Look closely and you will notice a common thread in the specimens he holds up for Job's edification:

A lioness hunting her prey
A mountain goat giving birth in the wilds
A rogue donkey roaming the salt flats
An ostrich flapping her useless wings with joy
A stallion leaping high to paw the air
A hawk, an eagle, and a raven building their nests on the rocky crags

That's a mere warm up — Zoology 101 in Job's education. From there God advances to the behemoth, a hippo-like creature no one can tame, and the mighty, dragonish leviathan. "Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?" God asks with a touch of scorn. "The mere sight of him is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me?"

Wildness is God's underlying message to Job, the one trait his menagerie all hold in common. God is celebrating those members of his created world that will never be domesticated by human beings. Wild animals bring us down a notch, reminding us of something we'd prefer to forget: our creatureliness. And they also announce to our senses the splendor of an invisible, untamable God.

Several times a week, I run among such wild animals, unmolested, for I run through Lincoln Park Zoo near downtown Chicago. I have gotten to know them well, as charming neighbors, but I always try mentally to project the animals into their natural states.

Three rock-hopper penguins neurotically pace back and forth on a piece of concrete that has been sprayed to look like ice. I envision them free, hopping from ice floe to ice floe in Antarctica among thousands of their comic-faced cousins.

An ancient elephant stands against a wall, keeping time three ways: his body sways from side to side to one beat, his tail marks a different rhythm entirely, and his trunk moves up and down to yet a third. I struggle to imagine this sluggish giant inspiring terror in an African forest.

And the paunchy cheetah lounging on a rock shelf — could this animal belong to the species that can, on a short course, out accelerate a Porsche?

It requires a huge mental leap for me to place the penguin, the elephant, and the cheetah all back where they belong, in "the world as God sees it." Somehow, God's lesson on wildness evaporates among the moats and plastic educational placards of the zoo.

Yet, I am fortunate to live near the zoo. Otherwise, Chicago would offer up only squirrels, pigeons, cockroaches, rats, and a stray songbird. Is this what God meant when he granted Adam dominion?

It is hard to avoid a sermonic tone when writing about wild animals, for our sins against them are great indeed. The elephant population alone has decreased by 800,000 in the last two decades, mostly due to poachers and rambunctious soldiers with machine guns. And every year, we destroy an area of rain forest — and all its animal residents — equal in size to the state of California.

Most wildlife writing focuses on the vanishing animals themselves, but I find myself wondering about the ultimate impact on us. What else, besides that innate appreciation for wildness, have we lost? Could distaste for authority, even a resistance to the concept of God as Lord, derive in part from an atrophied sense? God's mere mention of the animals struck a chord of awe in Job; what about us, who grow up feeding peanuts across the moat to the behemoths and leviathans?

Naturalist John Muir, who never had a vision for "the world as God sees it," reluctantly concluded, "it is a great comfort … that vast multitude of creatures, great and small and infinite in number, lived and had a good time of God's love before man was created."

The heavens declare the glory of God, and so do breaching whales and bouncing springboks. Fortunately, in some corners of the world, vast multitudes of creatures can still live and have a time in God's love. The least we can do is make room for them — for our sakes as well as theirs.
__________

"The God Who Can't Be Tamed," by Philip Yancey, Christianity Today, October 1987

Give Our Leaders the Finger...

2007-10-16T17:13:00.000-04:00

...index fingers only, please!

What are you voting to protect?

Why are you committed to stopping global warming?

What do you really care about in this world?

Watch this video and consider doing this yourself:

What would you write on YOUR palm, below your green finger?

I think I'll write "OUR BLUE PLANET."

November 3rd, 2007
is the
National Day of Climate Action