We're Killing Our Mother!!!

In the November 2008 issue of the (Chesapeake) "Bay Journal" , Sara Kaplaniak reports that, not only are honey bee populations falling, apparently bats are also on the decline. According to scientists, they suffer from something called "white nose syndrome", named after circles of white fungus around the bats’ noses. The precise cause of this affliction isn’t known, however the affects are. The bat deaths are occurring at a rate greater than births, and this isn’t good. Bats have been reported to consume more than 1,000 mosquitoes and other insects on a nightly basis. Considering the fact that the mosquito can carry a virus that we sold to Iraq, and is now popping up in America since we attacked Iraq, it would be good for us to maintain a natural line of defense as we continue to come up with human solutions to our human-made problems. Now that I thin about it, could this fungus be a symptom of West Nile in bats? Probably not, but anyone who wishes to explore that theory please do. I’m no researcher.

The bats and the bees aren’t the only creature on the decline, but there are reports of falling fire-fly populations in the Mae Klong River area near Bangkok. The fire-fly, a symbol of summer, serves as a part of the food chain.

We’ve disrupted the balance of Mother Nature greatly, through all of our little luxuries and lazies. Now it’s time to take our heads out of the sand, and maybe even the books, and do at least one thing per day to give back. I have my sapling growing to be planted this Spring. What will you do?