Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog

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When I was very young, (before I became a vegetarian) I was an avid fisherman.  I loved fishing tremendously; being out there, with nature, was a large part of it (and was very special).  There was a manmade lake that I would often fish at that was fairly new; adjacent to it, and connected to it by a narrow channel, was a huge, shallow swamp area (that was nearly as big as the lake itself).  Most people who fished at the lake didn’t know about the swamp area; it was a superb area that contained many fish, many of which would go there to spawn and lay eggs.  All kinds of other wildlife were there.  There was a large factory not far from the swamp, however, and each year the swamp would get more and more slime and oily residue floating at the surface, much of which was undoubtedly due to pollution from the factory and from the industrial environment.  Each year would be exponentially worse than the next.  There would be less and less fish each year and more and more noxious algae and scummy debris. Back then, as a kid, I felt that what was going on in the swamp was a precursor to what would be going on for our entire planet; I deeply felt that often.

Now scientists are saying that we don’t have much time left (before it’s too late) to “get it right” with changing things for the better with regard to the environment.  The permafrost of the globe is melting rapidly, and they say it will get exponentially worse each year, which will affect our environment in drastic ways.  Our weather is getting more and more erratic and violent and the coral reefs are rapidly dwindling.  Please try to do something more green; please try to use fossil fuel planes and automobiles less frequently and please recycle and look into using alternative energy forms that don’t leave as big of a carbon footprint.  Our human population, additionally, needs to be regulated more and intelligently diminished; an aquarium with too many fish within it cannot adequately recycle the waste and remain balanced.  Each one of us is highly responsible and must do our part.

(This won’t fit under a rug; it’s our planet.)

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Fly-catching. (1) Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015

Fly-catching. (2) (Digital Crayon). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2015