Doom and Gloom

That’s all I’ve got for you in today’s daily comments.

Triggered in my mind by the announcement that the monarch butterfly is now an endangered species, my thoughts this morning are focused on the rapid pace at which humanity is destroying the planet.

Just before the current heat wave began, I watched the Al Gore video, “An Inconvenience Truth”. It came to mind because I wanted to review exactly what he presented in 2006 compared to where climate change is today, 16 years later. Gore’s projections then are today’s reality.

This is what I see daily on a local level. No insects. That’s right. With the exception of a few bees hanging out around a flowering bush — no other insects. A few years ago, we were inundated with Japanese beetles. Haven’t seen one in the past two years. 

We live in an area that is part of an 8000-acredevelopment, Chatham Park, funded by a “white knight” by the name of Goodnight. He’s footing the bill for all of the infrastructure.  What was, only 4 years ago, a rolling natural wooded landscape is now a vast plain of exposed red clay awaiting the construction of more homes, retail centers, schools, movie theatres, and health care facilities. Goodnight’s not a bad guy. He’s doing what successful entrepreneurs do. I’m just pointing out the cost.

Who cares?

When we first moved to North Carolina in 2002, we would hear a nearly deafening chorus of frogs emanating from wetlands behind our home. We haven’t heard that in 15 years. The cicada’s chorus hasn’t been heard here for at least 10 years. 

The gloomy truth is that we’ve doomed the environment.