Urban Jungle: Wildlife in the Piney Wood
Urban Jungle: Wildlife in the Piney Woods
Life is everywhere. But there is less and less life everywhere as global warming caused by over-population and increased demand for energy results in pollution due largely to fossil fuel usage. The environment is stressed and under stress factors like over-spraying with insecticides and herbicides kills those beneficial insects which we all need to survive.
People do not like to hear the truth when it demands that they change their life style. As a naturalist I have been long aware that the bottle is fogging. The bottle is planet Earth. As the bottle fogs, more and more species are becoming extinct.
When I was in college I wrote a poem entitle The Foggy Bottle Builder. It was about a scientist who built terrariums, miniature worlds inside bottles. The bottles would always fog and all the creatures inside the bottle would die.
If you have ever tried to maintain a terrarium, you know the experience. You must have just the right balance of different fish, snails, and plants. Plus you must maintain the correct temperature and also use an activated charcoal filter to clean the water. If anything gets out of balance the whole system may die.
Well I hate to tell you, but the increased over-spraying of insecticides and herbicides is destroying hundreds of species of beneficial insects. When you kill off all the beneficial insects like honey bees, then other species like frogs, toads, birds, and bats have nothing to eat and become extinct.
Stop over-spraying with foggers! They do more harm than good. Have you noticed that fireflies have disappeared from more and more cities and towns. The disappearance of fireflies is an early warning that something is VERY WRONG.
Also global warming places extreme stress on the ecosystem. It certainly does not help having Lake Archusa suddenly vanished leaving a desert during the hottest period on record.
I am personally not surprised that the dam/spillway was breached during the hottest time since its construction. Any dam built on an arch is much stronger than a linear dam. This is because heat causes a structure to expand and when an arch expands all the force is transfered to the base of arch, which means the earth on either side of the structure. The quickest, most economical fix would be to build earthen and concrete arch with the spill way in the center. Think Hoover Dam or Lake Powell Dam, only on a smaller scale.
Such a structure properly built would last a thousand or more years.
None of us are likely to be alive in a hundred years, much less in a thousand years. At the rate people are over-populating planet Earth, now at eight-billion plus Homo sapiens, we may all be lucky if we live out a natural life span free of the stress of global warming, heart and lung disease, and cancer due in great part to pollution of the air and water which ends up in our bodies. Not to mention covid variant XYZ and other pandemics of the future.
What are we to do? As the Roman warriors use to say, "Live today for tomorrow you may die." Their death was in battle by sword, spear, arrow or ax. Our death will likely be by pollution.
To extend my own life I have taken to drinking bottled water. I simply do not trust water from a city that permits a torrification plant to operate only a block from the water well/tower and sprays toxic chemicals into the air every Thursday evening to kill mosquitoes... and kills every other beneficial insect in the process, including the fireflies.
I love all God's creatures, great and small. That includes people, which is why I am so concerned when I discover flora and fauna being adversely impacted by acts which are not in the best interest of people's welfare and survival.
Certainly the loss of Lake Archusa is an example of catastrophic loss of life. Though no people died, certainly a lot of wildlife perished. One only had to smell the rot which putrified the air around Lake Archusa a few days after it drained. Dead fish were abundant... as was at least one alligator. Beneath the sand were millions on small scallops that helped to keep the water clean. The value of the loss of life has not been measured. Nor who is at fault been determined or even been investigated. But the loss hurts EVERYONE in the community, especially property owners. The value of your property has fallen through the floor.
Those hurting most are the poor and impoverished, and senior citizens and those on a limited income. But why should your care if you do not fall into those groups? The only one you probably care about is yourself and your family.
I care about EVERYONE. That is just how I am. Thus I pen such muse. I hope to raise awareness. I hope to educate and inform. I hope even to save lives.
Let's bring back Lake Archusa A.S.A.P. I recommend tearing out the old fan-shaped failed spillway and constructing a new earthen arch with a central spill way that will last a thousand plus years. Let's do even more. Let's build a whole new living, working, and recreational area, that the millions of dollars spent will attract million of more dollars in investors to the area.
Let's also become more aware about the flora and fauna in our community. We are living in an urban jungle. Let's learn about the animals and plants around us. See https://www.inaturalist.com/drphotinus where I have cataloged over 100 species just recently. You can do the same. One fellow I heard about on MPB of found over 700 species in his backyard and has published a book about them.
You can actually increase your income through exploring nature. See Byteland Art at https://www.cafepress.com/bytelandart. These are gifts and apparel I have designed, many based upon original photographs of flora and fauna.
There is no reason you cannot do the same. Since everyone has a smartphone these days, everyone can take photograph and turn them into gifts and apparel. Why I've read that some people earn as much as $95,000 doing this. I hope to be able to make at least $20,000 to fund cataract surgery.
Cafepress is a print-on-demand service which provides users with free space to upload their favorite photos or design upon gifts or apparel that anyone my buy. Currently you may setup a shop and have 10,000 unique high quality designs, each on over 300 gifts and apparel! In time that could generate some pretty good pocket money. See these great VIP shops I have created:
1. Byteland Art at https://www.cafepress.com/bytelandart
2. TopPics at https://www.cafepress.com/toppics
3. Hot Tees at https://www.cafepress.com/hottees
4. Made in USA at https://www.cafepress.com/madeinusa
5 Mutt Pics at https://www.cafepress.com/muttpics
6. Lynch Photos at https://www.cafepress.com/lynchphotos
7. Evault at https://www.cafepress.com/evault
8. Hot Tees at https://www.cafepress.com/hottees
9. Awesome Tees at https://www.cafepress.com/awesometees
10. My Trophy Shop: https://www.cafepress.com/mytrophy
The Naturalist, a photo collage of flora and fauna crated to illustrate this article, is available at https://www.cafepress.com/toppics/17415378.
Anyone who wants to contribute to my cataract operation/ePub fund may send a donation to: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=D5W6Q3KC695TA.
God bless you and yours! Thank you for reading this article. You are invited to post comments here or via email to: greatusart@gmail.com.
