It’s easy to be cynical about the multitude of challenges to sustaining life on earth, but there are promising steps toward meeting some of those challenges, and today is a good day to think about them. I posted some of the blog below back in 2016, but the message is even more important today, on Earth Day 2024, when we should stop and reflect on how we impact our world.
Things we worry about — illustrated by photos from past blog postings
Warming climate, rising sea levels, and disappearing coastlines directly threaten human habitation, as well as that of wildlife in those areas.
Violent weather: tornadoes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms with high winds threaten people and wildlife.
Lack of winter snowpack reduces the spring/summer water flow in rivers necessary for grassland and desert plants and wildlife to prosper.
Changes in rainfall and river flow impact fish and invertebrate populations and the wildlife dependent on them.
Rising average air temperatures make the local climate unsuitable for plants (and animals). For example, the Cape Floral Kingdom at the tip of South Africa is doomed if temperatures rise much because there is no more southerly retreat for them.
Rising ocean temperatures, coupled with increased acidity of ocean water due to higher CO2 content threaten invertebrates, such as coral. Coral bleaching (due to the loss of their symbiotic algae) has increased dramatically in reefs all over the world in the last decade.
Habitat loss, as more acreage is converted to farmland, impacts wildlife and native plants, resulting in local extinctions.
Changes in weather patterns affect crop harvest and food production.
The consequences of our actions threaten all life on earth if they are not corrected. In my lifetime I have seen the corrections being made, albeit perhaps too slowly: recycling materials, conserving water, “green energy” technology to reduce carbon dioxide release, reducing chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. released to the environment, reducing air pollution (I grew up in the smog-filled Los Angeles basin in the 1950’s when it was really hard to breathe in the summer).
We don’t have to wait for technology and policy to solve our environmental problems. Not just today on Earth Day, but every day, let’s think about the global consequences of our local actions so we can be a part of the solution to these challenges.
Back Yard Biology 
Thank you for continuing to use your skills at both photography and biology to remind us of the beauty, diversity and preciousness of our earth. Perhaps we also need to see the garbage mountains in Florida (where I am) and the seashores full of plastic, as well as the drastic loss in our aquafers to bring it “home” to us that we have a choice, each one of us, to do our part.
Funny thing about photographing the “real” world, I don’t have photos of the mountains of overflowing garbage, landfills, or plastic waste. I think I might need to reset my world view meter! This blog was a good reminder to me to photograph the good, as well as the bad, the beautiful as well the ugly. Thanks so much for your comment.
Thanks for the pointed reminder and beautiful photos. It hurts to think that the beautiful Tetons, in which I live, are being negatively impacted by our actions. We have one earth, for which we better take care.
Thanks for your comment. You live in one of the most beautiful places in the U.S.
Well said, Sue. Let’s get together when you are around. Lynn
Amen, Sue…….
If only the people who really need to absorb this would actually do so. Sigh.
Wonderful and important messages, Sue! Thank you.