Hi world,
So you want to save the
planet? Well, you can't. Not by yourself, anyway. What you can do
is be a part of a group working toward the same goal, and since today
is World Wildlife Day, that is what you should focus on.
There is an inherent
problem with things like World Wildlife Day, however. We think of
big animals: lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! The animals we
want to save are cute (like pandas), or majestic (like eagles), or
beautiful (like the short-crested coquette, which, along with being a
very colourful hummingbird clearly has one of the best names
available, along with the Thaumatodryinus tuukkaraski, which as a
hockey fan is indescribably playful).
We think of exotic
animals: leopards and gorillas and rhinos, and that's not entirely
our fault. These species have great PR and in order to gain your
attention, they are used as poster-species. We don't think about the
Aaandonta anguarana, a very basic-looking land snail on the
critically endangered list from IUCN, or Stigmaphyllon nudiflorum, a
small plant in Ecuador, or any more than 100 of the 4635 species on
the critically endangered list.
That is good; these
animals need saving too, but there are .. wait. “Lions and tigers
and bears.” We have bears. They're right here. They are so right
here and their habitats are so encroached upon that they are walking
into people's homes at random, in large cities like Vancouver, BC,
where the police receive over 7,000 calls a year about black bears in
residential areas. So if it's not all exotic and spectacular mammals
that live on different continents, what is it? It's about the world.
What is “over there” from here, is “here”, to over there.
Just because your city is not home to the rare red-beaked,
meringue-crested giraffe-hoofed water squazzle doesn't mean that it
doesn't need help. (And really, don't you kind of want that to
exist?)
The truth of the matter
too is that it is not a problem that is far away, that is “over
there”. It's here, in our backyards, in our parks, on our coasts
and in our mountains. It's here and it's right now. Critically
endangered does not mean we can sit back and wait for a few
generations to pass before we do something; it means that a few
generations from now, they will be extinct. This sounds scary and is
meant to. It also sounds like a monumental task, and it is, but the
sooner it is acted upon, the sooner something can be done.
We need to help, and we
can make a difference. The “us” we, not the “other people”
we. Not the “yeah, yeah, all of us” but the you and I we.
It is difficult to see the
forest through the trees, as it were, and hard to see how one person
can make any sort of difference to such a vast issue, but therein
lies the joy: you are one person, as am I, but we are many, and we
can effect change. World Wildlife Day is not about one person doing
something and then ignoring the situation for a year. It is about a
community working together. You, as an individual can do that. You
can make a small donation and spread the word and ignore it for a
year, easing your conscience, and that is just as ok as someone who
can afford more – more time, more money, who has more interest. No
one is asking to put you out or make your life difficult. If you can
volunteer or be active in some other way, if you can afford to make a
large donation or use your skills to raise awareness, I am sure it
would be appreciated, but it is not necessary. What is necessary is
that something be done, and we can no longer wait for the
hypothetical someone else to do it. We have to play an active role
in our own world.
I (personally, as the
writer of this blog) can afford to make a small donation and raise
some awareness, so that is what I am doing. What will you be doing?
What can you afford? Time? Money? Education? If you are
interested in helping in whatever way, big or small, financial or
not, please go to: http://www.wildlifeday.org
and get involved.
If you're reading this
after March 3, CITES is on social media:
Mention us:
Go do something and help
the world. March 3, World Wildlife Day.
-SWW
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