Subject: [Tweeters] Nature is infinitely robust
Date: Feb 26 21:17:49 2006
From: Al Wagar - alwagar at verizon.net
Hi all,
I?ve enjoyed ALL the posts, simply as a sampling of attitudes and
emotions. And, against my better judgment, I?m weighing in with a few
comments.
Related to all this: Question. If a tree falls and no one is around to
hear it, does it make any sound? Answer. Depends on your definition of
?sound.? If you define it as pressure waves propagated through the air,
the answer is ?yes.? If you define it as these pressure waves vibrating a
human ear drum, the answer is ?no.?
So, what the heck is ?nature?? Native Americans obviously had dramatic
impacts in shaping our ecosystems. BUT, in contrast with our current
situation, they were in something of an equilibrium and, at a large scale,
things were more or less a dynamic mosaic in which the proportion if
various kinds of patches was fairly stable. Beaver also create major
habitat changes, as do ungulates. Were the people in pre-industrial
cultures here and elsewhere just another species in the ?natural world??
My own outlook is that ?nature? is a set of forces and materials that have
been shaping things ever since the ?big bang? or whatever started it all
in motion -? gravity, electromagnetic forces, thermodynamics, etc., etc.
Some day we humans will all disappear, whether by our own misjudgments and
bad habits or when the sun expands to swallow the earth. But, ?nature,? as
I like to define it, will still be here, totally indestructible.
So, in my humble view, the issue is: Will our actions lead to a congenial
or not-so-congenial environment for people, with ?congenial? including all
the material and nonmaterial things that contribute to the quality of our
lives? Like it or not, we seem to be the only decision makers involved.
Many of our current choices are very short-term and unenlightened for the
longer term. Whether ecosystems unravel for lack of ?keystone species? or
our lives are simply impoverished by the loss of interesting species and
environments, we need an enlightened self-interest in our decision making.
So, the impacts of bird feeding are probably mixed. Now that bird flu
seems to be following the migration routes and seems to infect through
contact with feces, the unknown percentage of poorly maintained feeders
COULD be problematic. But, people get enormous enjoyment out of birds
close at hand. And, given the huge numbers of migrating birds, maybe the
feeders are a tiny part of the total risk. I do worry a bit about
?refuges? where people are feeding huge numbers of birds that otherwise
wouldn?t be so concentrated. But I?ll leave it to the experts to assess
such risks.
Al Wagar
Shoreline