snowy Gnomes, in an empty world
Or so the story would go, if left unchecked. But happily enough, we do have editors. Authors might dislike them for their obsessive corrections and never ending feedback on story as well as choice of words or love them for their behind the scenes story saving work. The snowy gnomes of the world might, like wise, feel an outmost lack of respect for the clumsy nature of humans wildlife editors - also called conservationists and scientists, as they rummage around in both the country side and deep forests. as well as continually tanning in the artificial lights of sterile labs and concrete big city jungles.
But, they certainly appreciate the outcome of their work, for without natures editors, our dear politicians and color blind corporate leaders (most, if not all of them, only see black and red after all) would have run us all head first in to a world of hurt - even more then already is the case.
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From the tiny, miniscule stuff to the bigger, broader pencil strokes of climate change and global events such as WW 1 and 2, The Gulf war(s), air pollution, outsourcing, equality, poverty, fresh water, food production, it´s quality and price and environmental impact as well as scarcity and distribution. Emissions goals and clean, sustainable energy vs short term profit for unsustainable, dirty and life damaging energy producers and other corporate ventures (such as Fracking, which, with it´s short life span and long lasting, negative consequences for nature and already strained fresh water levels cant be viewed as anything else then a very unsustainable and damaging energy choice, with only one merit to exist - short term profit for the producer at the expense of everyone else).
- If left unchecked, as bad as things are today in the world.
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The state of the world would have been tremendously much worse without conservationists and scientists to at times shine a light on the simple reality so many others want to dismiss entirely as soon as it does not line up with their own short term profit.
Sometimes those things are big and easy to see - such as how air pollution in China affects other countries and not just the poor Chinese people living in the daily smog that cuts their life expectancy short by up to 20 years. Air pollution they of course would never have had to endure in the first place if the rest of the world did not outsource unsustainably cheap and dirty production to China in the first place.
But sometimes important things are quite small and seemingly insignificant at first glance. To the point that we might not even give them the briefest thought.
One such thing often over looked by decision makers as well as your neighbor is our garden caretaker, the bumble bees and their siblings.
And yet another one that is arguably at one hand, a quite different beast but also very much closely related to the bumble bee in how it directly affects us and our world in a significant and often over looked way is the apex predators. On the surface, they are nothing but gracelike predatory killers, possessive of great beauty but also a potential threat to our health and sometimes, income. But that view point is being simple minded and over looking the hugely positive net worth they give us and the rest of the world just by existing.
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Sharks, Tigers and other fluffy kittens
apex predators and our world
.1
Simple reality
It might feel like an easy to make decision to sacrifice yet more local land when caught in the desires of a hungry coal mine corporation - promised profit for the politician in charge, profit for the workers, and most of all, profit for the corporate leaders. A win, win situation for all parties involved is the promise that is being sold over and over again.
But, then again. That is nothing but short term thinking, and a lack of capacity for seeing hard to accept truths about more often then not shallow, and rarely fulfilled promises.
It is easy to forget the long term effects even if the short term promised are fulfilled when someone waves the potential for billions of US$ in profit for the next 20 years in front of you.
Hard to resist revenue for pressured politicians even if there is no faul play involved beyond a neglect for science and simple reality.
Reality is, that even tho we might all live in different countries, and different cities and counties within those countries. Even such small things as our bumble bee populations affects not just the local farmer, but the entire globe in the long run.
And so do our friendly apex predators of the world.
Their demise or success directly and indirectly affects us all. The apex predators are natures editors.
And when we remove natures apex predators in one country and region, we dont just remove a predator from the top of the food chain. They are not just competition for our occasional and almost always, for fun, recreational hunts, nor are they just an abysmal threat to our livestock animals and our domesticated cats and dogs.And no, they do not pose a significant threat to people. they hardly register on the threat scale in life.
If anything, Apex predators keeps us safe and healthy, globally speaking.
Apex predators and our world
When one country kills off it´s wolf population (or similar predators) the result is not a huge amount of threatened people all of a sudden living in safety.
The results are the opposite and they are negative for both farm land as well as our own safety. When we pressure the apex predators in any given area the result is not an increase in safety, on the contrary it leads to it´s natural prey increasing and being free to chewing off to much of the vegetation and the increase in prey often leads to an increase and spread of various animal related diseases.
This might not be an obvious or a simple to accept truth that wolf haters or scared citizens not being used to wildlife want to acknowledge, simple reality is that keeping a healthy number of wolves in a country is a positive thing not just for the wildlife population as a whole, it also allows nature a more natural and healthy balance and keeps pest such as rats down to, for us and nature, much more healthy levels.
The evidence for this are plentiful and can be seen all over the world.
One such case is Yellow stone park in USA. Where the reintroduction of Wolves quickly transformed the wildlife and nature itself in a positive way. Wolves turned out to be the best park ranger and conservationist the park had ever seen.
But Yellowstone is not an isolated and unique case study, there are plenty of similar cases to be found in Europe and Asia as well, where simple facts is that healthy numbers of wolf´s and other apex predators keeps moose, elk, rats and other animals, such as the beaver, down to naturally sustainable levels that actually benefits not just nature and wildlife, but farmers and other people too. And unlike us, they do it without exterminating any part of the ecosystem.
Not to mention, wolf´s are one of the apex predators that pose virtually zero threat to people. Another hard to ignore fact is that most countries in the world actually reimburse farmers when they loose live stock. To such a degree even, that plenty of farmers are believed to make up wild life losses just for the profit it generates for them.
Farm animals most of them would slaughter in the end anyway. So as unpleasant as it might be to loose an animal to a wildlife attack, there is no real loss of income, nor in the case of live stock, is there really a loss of life that would not have happened anyway.
All in all, the simple reality of modern day life and the importance of nurturing nature and wildlife in a sustainable way for our own survivability makes it even more puzzling why people in 2014 are still so afraid or even hateful towards having wolf´s and other big predators in their country.
One such, otherwise enlightened and wonderful Scandinavian country is Norway.
A nature and wildlife loving country whom year after year is doing it´s very best to exterminate the wolf from it´s country. And for no good, productive or sane reason at all.
If we want to stick to reality that is.
Sharks, Tigers and other fluffy kittens
Like the wolf, the shark is another both feared and loathed - but beautiful and wonderfully positive to keep around apex predator.
No, i am not suggesting that you should breed great whites in your swimming pool or raise a wolf pack in your apple tree garden.
But sharks just like the wolf packs of our world keep nature in check. And they do so in a safe and sustainable way. And while sharks, just like wolves can be intimidating for sure, and for good reasons of course. They pose, in reality, a miniscule threat to people.
In fact, sharks do far more good then harm for us.
And as such, shark cullings such as the one Western Australia from time to time wants to engage in - serves zero reason to exists.
Culling the number of sharks in any area of the world, will never save a single human being from a shark attack and it will never deter a shark from getting close to a beach or surfer. In fact, it can only function as a shining beacon that attracts sharks.
Not to mention that like wolf´s and tigers and lions, sharks and most other apex predators are endangered and cant take us going on retarded killing sprees. Nor is the nutritional value of shark fin soup anything to brag about.
Going after apex predators is more or less such a clue less thing that it could be called a retarded thing to do because, science, facts and simple reality gives us no incentive to do so. It gives us zero benefits but plenty of negatives to cull or even exterminate our apex predators.
.2
The bumble bee, our proud gardener
And just like our humble and quite snugly bumblebee, removing apex predators does not affect just the nearest beach or city block or farmer. It causes global ripple effects that in the end touches us all.
Bumblebees are for instance needed to pollinate crops, crops that feeds our entire world and not just the local farmers wealth. From apple trees to grains and honey. Without bees humanity loses out not just on natural beauty in the shape of animals and florals, but already strained food resources would diminish in huge numbers. The sad reality is that bees helps us create a significant portion of all our food and a world without them is not a joy ride that anyone would want to get on with.
Food resources are already under mounting strain from both the sheer number of people in the world, as well as a gradually increasingly warmer climate (which will make it much more harder to grow food in the current big food producing countries), ineffective food distribution, rising prices and a lack of water resources due to the increasing areas in the world that are or have already reached peak water levels.
And yes, those food resources, the land they grow in, our forests, our bumble bees, and us people - the unbalanced pressure on all that increases even further by removing our apex predators from the top of the watch line that otherwise keep things in balance in a sustainable way.
Unlike us humans, predators simply do not exterminate their prey. They live and they die in a naturally balanced dance of life and death. And they are all needed to not upset that balance.
Pretty much like the climate change that is happening. We do not want to keep pushing the envelope with increasing pollution just because it´s more affordable short term speaking. Once we hit that tipping point, things will escalate and rapidly so.
And that, is just as is the case with bees and apex predators - simple reality, simple science.
No matter what fantasies you sell, it does not ever change the fabric of reality
From shark finning to pesticide usage in farming, shark culling, climate change, shale gas, coal mines, palm oil, air pollution, food harvests, fresh water, bumble bees, sustainable energy, storing of chemicals and quality of life.
We should all be thankful for the 'editors' that keep our so called leaders from making things even worse. God knows, they dont have an easy time doing their job because plenty of influential people with nothing but a selfish short term view could not care less about the global effects on what they do. Just as we have some politicians that firmly believe that keeping people from doing abortions and divorces is somehow empowering peoples freedom and quality of life.
As we spread our footprint even more, it becomes rapidly much more crucial that we start to acknowledge that we do need to be sustainable and adapting in our approach to both nature, climate and animals.
For our own species long term survivability as well as all our quality of life.
We need both the tiny bumblebees as well as the gracelike predators to help us make this world a more balanced and healthy place for all of us.
Politicians and corporate leaders can be partially blind, and that is okay, they are after all just people, and we are all flawed.
Further more, they are just our minority elected servants and our candy land manufacturer - but the world as a whole has to become smarter and rapidly so because when they do not do their job, when they even deny reality to the harm of us all, then we have to do the job for them.
Neither of us live in an isolated island separated from the rest of the world. We all live on the same planet and neither of us need to sacrifice the rest of the world to have a great life. That is solely the behaviour and selfishness of the Koch brothers and their likes, and today we write January 25, 2014 (the original date for when i wrote this as a public post on g+) and no one should believe such nonsense anymore. The world does not improve and it does not become more equal and healthy because we tax our rich people less then others. The world does not avoid climate change because we ignore it.
Just as no one should be stupid enough to believe that chinese people dont want an equally happy life and clean nature as we do. Nor that their environmental issues does not affect us. Or that the world will do just fine if we keep producing things the way we do know.
It might be positive for your yearly bonus to destroy the nature of West Virginia USA looking for more coal mines ,shale gas or other minerals, or to kill off all the Sumatran rain forests and wildlife just so you can buy cheaper toilet paper one more year.
It might make you sleep better to claim that nothing is going on with the rising sea level outside the US east coast, or at least it might be good for your voting numbers this year to make it illegal to talk about. And yes, all those crazy things actually happens in our world when people turn a blind eye.
Just as how killing a few Western Australia sharks or Norwegian wolves might give you a few easy points amongst voters and especially so if you promise it will somehow manage to create more jobs tomorrow. It might even make a few religious extremists all happy and jolly good feeling to hear that Earth exists in another reality without science, progress and evolution. Just as some confused people seems to think that god cant exist if people are allowed to only have healthy relationships.
But in the long haul, when behaving like that, you are only chopping off your own leg as well as every body elses too. From work, income, to food, climate, equality, fulfilling lives, education, health care and every other way too. Neglecting the reality of us all living on one tiny little marble - is simply no better then those peddling rhino horns to superstitious people being sick in cancer or suffering from sexual dysfunctions.
No matter what fantasies you sell, it does not ever change the fabric of reality.
Related articles from the web
How the threat to lions, leopards, bumble bees and wolves endangers us all
The guardian on WA Shark cull
1000+ rhinos killed in South Africa during 2013
The guardian on 1000+ Rhinos poached in South Africa during 2013
Unsustainable shark finning,one part of killing more then 70 million sharks per year
The numbers behind sharks vs human fear
Green sea turtles starving to death
Wolves in Norway (and other places in Europe and USA)
Norway slaughtering Wolves
Illegal slaughter of endangered Whale sharks
Endangered whale sharks slaughtered for shark fin soup
Take part on a world without apex predators
This quite fitting article about pretty much the same thing as my own thoughts where posted by The guardian the day after i originally wrote this article on my g+ profile so i decided to link to guardians article as well.
How the threat to lions, leopards and wolves endangers us all
How we endanger humanity by not protecting apex predators
Another important pollinator is the Monarch butterfly
Monarch butterfly facing harder times
And finally, a new bill in Idaho, Usa that wants us all to disregard all of the simple science and reality that we now know by killing off hundreds of wolves in Idaho.
One have to wonder, exactly who does it benefit when we allow leaders and other vested parties to rule our world by disregarding the reality we all live in.
Idaho vs the benefit of wolves
S