We have arrived at the final month of 2021. It has been a year of overflowing challenges, both personally and globally. Back in January, we had the shocking and saddening insurrection in our capital. A day has not gone by without updated news reports of COVID19, with its statistics and ever growing pressure on the public to receive the vaccine. Now we have the Delta variant to keep adding fuel to the fire. Aside from the more common weather events, fires, and all-to-often shootings, violence has permeated the general atmosphere. Civil unrest and anger have given way to protests, of which some have resulted in the deaths of at least a dozen people. Texas passed a bill restricting abortions to 6 weeks of pregnancey. The milestone achieved at the adoption of Roe versus Wade in 1973, is now in danger of crumbling beneath the feet of women’s rights.
Will this month end on a positive note? Will we be able to hang on to one relic of positivity for this year that is soon to come to an end? We must look for the good and be grateful for those things that promise us hope. President Biden halted the drilling of a pipeline in Alaska (Keystone XL) which would have destroyed habitat and threatened the survival of many bird and fish species. Aside from the obvious reliance on fossil fuels that the pipeline would support, the already critically endangered Whooping Crane would face extinction. Power lines create a huge problem for large migrating birds, like swans and geese, who fly into them, resulting in instant death. The sage-grouse and swift fox as well as many of our threatened migrating songbirds, and the insects on which they rely, would also face dire circumstances. The entire ecosystem of the proposed 875 mile route through the Great Plains would be affected. The probable oil spill at some point in time, leaves little hope for so many wildlife species that are barely hanging on as it is. Nearly 3 billion songbirds have already been lost to us in the past fifty years – in North America alone – less than a human lifetime!
We must continue to look for the good. We must continue to be grateful. We must also help to bring awareness to those who do not understand the grave danger that our planet and all her species are facing. What will you do in this last stretch of 2021? Will you share this post? Will you turn down your thermostat to save fuel? Will you take a shorter shower to conserve water? Will you educate yourself to bring awareness and understanding about global warming, not only for yourself, but for your children and grandchildren, who will inherit this planet when you are gone?
