Biodiversity

Leave a comment Posted on Uncategorized

EXTRACT FROM ‘PLANET DANCING’

 

ECHOES IN THE SEA:

Today we no longer kill whales with harpoons – we kill them with ‘research’.In an age depleted of Blue Whales, what judgement of us moves in the brains of these magnificent animals? Brains that know the passes through the mountains of the great oceans; that have confronted giant squids; that have seen the wrecks of whaling ships – are they aware that something has changed?Are they aware that fewer great whales inhabit the seas?Are they aware how few? 

Will it matter if there is silence in the ocean of whales?

(From the book – Planet Dancing.)

Patrick

Leave a comment Posted on Uncategorized

The Frog and the Princess.

 

The air was particularly fragrant that morning. the scent of the lily pads across the entire pond was never finer. It was a good place to be a frog.

He sat on a half-submerged leaf with the sun full on his face and thought, with particular satisfaction, of the three lady frogs he had covered the evening before. Many tadpoles would issue as a result of that profligate dalliance with those notable dainty strumpets.

Then his patch of sunlight suddenly darkened. A large princess, notable for her extreme ugliness and gross weight, sat herself down without invitation on the very edge of the frog pond. It was clear to the frog that she intended to sit there for a considerable time blocking his place in the sun.

He said to her: “If you kiss me I will turn you into a beautiful creature.”

The princess was not to pass up such a tempting offer. She got down on her fat hands and broad knees and leaning out over the pond kissed the frog – and was immediately turned into a beautiful butterfly.

The frog ate the butterfly and the sun shone down on his pond as before.

 

(More from the book Planet Dancing.)

Patrick

Leave a comment Posted on Uncategorized

1 – Why should we care if species become extinct?

 

It’s a reasonable question.

There’s a little guy that lives in one of the driest places on Earth – the Namibian Desert in south-west Africa. The place may be dry but even a little fellow needs water. So where is he to get it? Where indeed? 

A thin fog, so weak that we humans cannot see it, drifts in from the Atlantic Ocean. There are prospects in that. It may not be much – but water is water. So this little guy, a beetle, looked at the problem a long time ago and came up with an intriguing method of capturing from this fog the little amount of water he needs. 

To do this he stands in the path of the fog with his back towards it. The word ‘stands’ is not exactly correct. He stands almost on his head so that the greatest amount of his back faces into the fog. The drifting fog condenses on numerous bumps on his back to form tiny droplets of water. These droplets are channeled down his back and into his mouth.

We can only speculate on how such a process of water catchment evolved. It must have taken thousands of years of trial and error by this Namibian Fog Beetle. We can only stand in astonishment at what these beetles have achieved. For just this wonderment alone they should have a place in our hearts.

Scientific studies of the behaviour of these beetles has resulted in the production of fog nets covered in thousands of glass beads that can be used to capture water from fog.

So even a tiny insect like this can be of direct benefit to us. We would be wise, therefore, to take care that NO species becomes extinct. We simply don’t know the potential value to us of ANY species into the future.

Three cheers for Namibian Fog Beetles!

(More on species extinction to follow.)

Patrick.

Leave a comment Posted on Uncategorized

Must China and Japan go to war?

 

How easy it is to slip into war. A niggling dispute might fester for a while then an unrelated incident trigger it into a conflict that no one could have predicted.

China and Japan are engaged in a simmering disagreement over ownership of a group of islands. Must two fine countries send young men and women to kill each other?

To ease these countries away from their differences over these islands, and save face on both sides, a simple suggestion might be proposed:

That the disputed islands and the sea around them  be declared a national park to be managed by the United Nations until such time when an amicable solution is found by the two countries in dispute.

A single blog like this will do nothing to calm  matters between these two countries. But what if this uncomplicated suggestion were picked up by others and allowed to go viral? By this process millions of people could register their sympathy against what is occurring with the prospect of the weight of world opinion nudging the two countries towards a settlement as suggested.

If we can be of help here it would be the first time that citizens of the world would have succeeded in turning aside potential conflict. Would that not be a great thing?

If you agree with this idea please consider re-blogging or re-tweeting it to others to generate a chain reaction around the world  to make it easier for these two countries to find an easement in their difficulty.

 

Patrick

  

Leave a comment Posted on Uncategorized

OPEN WIDE AND SAY – AH!

Going to the dentist used to be a thing of dread until pain killers arrived. Recently it has been discovered that Ecuadorian Poison Frogs have a chemical in their venom that may result in even more powerful pain killers. So, in the future, the demand by your dentist to ‘open wide’ may produce even less concern – provided these frogs don’t become extinct in the mean time.

Panamanian Poison Frogs have a flag to wave too. Their toxin has the potential to produce new heart drugs.

Even the little Mexican Leaf Frogs should be given a cheer. It appears that chemicals in their skin are useful against harmful bacteria. Such chemicals may also prove useful to us.

It is estimated that one in three frog species are threatened with extinction. We don’t know the potential benefits to us of many of these. We are therefore fools not to protect all of them.

Patrick. 

 

Leave a comment Posted on Uncategorized

What’s in a name – well, a lot really!

 

Recently I published a book – PLANET DANCING. It is about conserving nature. It contains six large ideas how we, all of us, on a world scale, might become involved. The book has a number of illustrations that are clearly of a wildlife nature. The cover too has a wildlife look to it. All of that should suggest that the subject matter is nature conservation.

Wrong.

In one shop the book found its way onto the ‘Astronomy’ shelf. In another it was placed in ‘Geology Section‘.  In a university bookshop it was proudly displayed under ‘Arts and Dance’.

I offer this to those who are contemplating writing books on non-fiction. Be extremely careful that your title does not mis-lead. Hope this is of help to some.

Regards

Patrick 

Leave a comment Posted on Uncategorized

Children and Conservation – a World Dance-Day for Nature!

 

Clearly we are not winning the battle to conserve species. At this stage, to shake all of us out of our lethargy, we need a world event for nature.

What if we were to pick a day and on that day let the children of the world dance for nature? Let them dance in their own country but let them know that children in other countries are dancing too. Let them know that English children and Dutch children and Japanese children and American children are dancing on that day.   

Let them know that they dance for the joy of being children; that they dance in the delight of their own existence; that they dance to celebrate Nature in all her wonders. And perhaps, we reserved adults that we are, might dance a little as well.

We should dance for the starfish.  We should dance for the snow worms and the musk turtles and the silence of the great whales.We should dance for the symmetry of tuna and the beauty of sea hares.We should dance for the snipefish and the magpie larks. We should dance for the ice fields of Antarctica.

We should dance too a requiem for the species that tried and failed. We should dance for the Great Auk, the Japanese Wolf, the Labrador Duck, the Elephant birds, the Quagga and the Giant Irish Deer. We should dance too in remembrance of species we have recently driven to extinction – even before we had time to give them the dignity of names.  

 

And when the dancing stops we should cheer with the joy of knowing that all the children of the planet, and some adults too, danced that things be made better for nature: That we become aware that planet-wide movements for nature are now needed if conservation is to become significant.  Such a Nature day would be worthy of remembrance.

Patrick

5 Comments Posted on Uncategorized

Earthday and the Major Religions.

We can no longer leave the protection of nature merely in the hands of government agencies and the good work of NGO’s. We are losing species. The responsibility to protect habitats and the material that depends on such places must be the responsibility of all of us.

Fine – and how do we get motivated to even start thinking along those lines?

The great religions of the world could be a wonderful force for good in this. What if they agreed that one day in the year would be a Religious-Nature day? What if on that day, in cathedrals and mosques and synagogues and temples our religious leaders were to talk to their flocks on the connections between the dominant religious movements and the world of nature? What if they talked of the need to protect the great roar of creation? Millions of followers would hear their words. An annual day like this, where focus is brought to bear on the responsibility of all of us to be part of nature conservation, would be a great thing. Encouraging words on how we might conduct our lives in ways that do not damage the habitat of any species would be a great thing. 

Such a simple thing to do. But it would takes good religious men and women to discuss this widely and to press the church elders to embrace the idea. We need religious people who have an affection for nature to now speak out on this.  

 

Patrick