Ever since the end of 2016, I’ve been obsessively scrolling around the planet on Google Earth in my spare time. I’ve realized that I’m not doing this because I’m worried about what we might lose in the future, but because I’m nervous of what we have already lost today. Perhaps this notion of mine is because of my work and interest in paleontology. I’m liable to be looking to the past, not the present. Our current crisis, however, is too close for comfort for me, even in looking at it with a purely scientific perspective.
Late in the afternoon today, I took a hike in the Mianus River Gorge Preserve (their website is here), a beautiful stretch of land in New York that preserves an old growth forest of Hemlock trees that was not logged and turned into farmland because the hemlocks took up residence on the steep slopes of the gorge. This preserve was actually the first of the Nature Conservancy’s preserves and the first National Natural History Landmark in the United States , and walking through the gorge and old growth forest gave me a minute or two to think about conservation in general.
The land of the preserve bears biological stains from when humans exploited the countryside for its land, with the difference between the old-growth forest and the secondary growth forest growing on the slope above collapsed stone walls stark. Deforestation leaves its scars. As I read about the sudden uptick in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, the old rock walls which populate the forest floor around myself come to mind.
In previous years, I’ve written articles on this blog on Earth day in celebration. I’m not so sure I can today. Science and the environment are under heavy attack from powerful forces political and economic. It’s up to everyone to stand up for the planet, as many demonstrated today by marching at the March for Science and its sister marches across the globe. Though I couldn’t join them today, I’ve been for my part trying to contact my legislators as much as possible regarding conservation and other issues and donating to conservation organizations among others when I can. Yet the scariness of the moment doesn’t cease. All I can say is that I think it’s going to be a long few years ahead for science and conservation, but with a little luck and a lot of work things will turn out all right. Happy Earth Day.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Photo by the author.
An Odyssey of Time 