Archive for April, 2025

“Somewhere between action and reaction there is an interaction, and that’s where all the magic and fun lie.” —Tyson Yunkaporta, Indigenous Elder, author and scholar

When studies are made of human impact on almost 100,000 ecological sites across the globe and all give similar results showing that humans directly and deleteriously affect the viability of those sites, we know that human populations are completely out of balance with other forms of life—and ultimately with their own interests. This is the sobering conclusion of an article in Naturemagazine titled “The Global Human Impact on Biodiversity,” which compiled 2,133 publications covering 3,667 independent comparisons of biodiversity impacts. https://tinyurl.com/activity-and-biodiversity

Monarch butterflies are frequently spoken of as being a source of wonderment. These extraordinary insects migrate 4,800 kilometres from the sacred fir trees of central Mexico up to eastern Canada and northeast USA, and then back again. They achieve this journey by propagating a few generations of butterflies along the way. It is an amazing story.

Yet the fate of these charismatic creatures is a well-documented example of humans’ overreach into Nature, witnessed in the catastrophic effects of human activity on the endangered habitats along the insects’ migration routes and in their final destinations. 

As we know, monarch butterflies are in trouble in eastern North America, but they are even more so in the west. But we can help to reverse their tragic decline. We can do so much more to support them when they arrive by making sure the right milkweed plants are available for the caterpillars to eat. 

This month Oliver Milman wrote in The Guardian: “Last year, the US government proposed the species be listed as endangered for the first time, its numbers winnowed away by habitat loss, pesticide use and the onward relentless march of the climate crisis.” https://tinyurl.com/butterfly-migration

Publications like The Guardian are committed to making it transparent that the world’s ecological integrity is being put in danger by humans’ propensity to tear down an astonishingly crafted evolutionary system. The newspaper has dedicated much work to educating western readers and alert them to the huge crises the planet is facing now, but a large, long-term sustained effort is also being made to engage people in acting because they love Nature. By creating a pathway for wonder and contemplation of Nature much has been achieved.

The Guardian even has a contest for invertebrate of the year and encourages people to vote for their favourite. “We backboned beasts are a tiny minority, barely 5% of the planet’s species,” writes Patrick Barkham. “Most life on Earth has chosen a spineless path, and they are animals of amazing diversity: beetles, bivalves, bees; corals, crabs, cephalopods; snails, spiders and sponges… Many of these animals perform vital functions for our habitable planet. Invertebrates supply the vast majority of pollination that enables us to grow food, and enjoy flowers. Invertebrates make soil, and keep it fertile. They clean water and tidy land, devouring poo or decomposing animals, repelling everything from bad smells to deadly diseases.” For more on this and a range of other engaging articles about insects and other invertebrates, see https://www.theguardian.com/environment/invertebrates

Whether we notice the critically important earthworm when we are gardening, or pass by a flowering apple tree in May and hear bees pollinating, any celebration on the 55th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 puts Nature at the forefront. This seems obvious. EARTHDAY.ORG tries to engage us in its corporate way by reaching out through its 2025 theme Our Power, Our Planet. The plea is to vigorously embrace alternatives to fossil fuel energy so that we can reverse the climate crisis that threatens Earth’s biodiversity. The website asks individuals along with local and national governments to conscientiously strive to accelerate commitments for renewable energy. www.earthday.org

This sounds valid enough, but Earth Day is a once-a-year popup event that we are told a billion people participate in. It is also a non-profit trade mark organization that makes a lot of money. The website has a greenish activist tone to it: “The organization continues to build a historic movement as citizens of the world rise up in a united call for the creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery that we need to meet our climate crisis and seize the enormous opportunities of a zero-carbon future.”

Earth Day Canada (www.earthday.ca), the Canadian version of earthday.org, talks up the same word salad and announces each year that Earth Day should be celebrated every day. Fair enough, but have these platitudes translated into meaningful actions? The website speaks about the need to protect biodiversity and stalwartly declares we are also a part of biodiversity. “Our interactions with the world around us need to be thought anew to lower our impact. Focusing on the preservation and restoration of biodiversity will do just that. And because ecosystems differ from one region to another, local actions need to be implemented. Municipalities operate on a local scale and as such, they are the first to see the changes in the ecosystems around them. It also means that they are the best positioned to implement impactful actions to preserve or restore biodiversity.” This strikes a true sensibility for our problems.

Bishop’s University’s guide to positive biodiversity involvement has some bright stories. The First Supper: A Food Conversation & Art Experience, a symposium held a month ago, gave us a taste of what will be continued in September. It enabled the university community and beyond to “bring together experts and practitioners in agriculture, sustainability, and food systems to explore hopeful initiatives that are reshaping the way we produce and engage with food.”

Unfortunately, contrary to this vision, the university’s rigid status quo system is more concerned with laying out expensive grass sod instead of planting perennials, and spending thousands of student dollars for one evening of high-carbon-emissions “skiing” that left two increasingly filthy mounds of blackened snow in the quadrangle for months. Equally, using highly noise- and air-polluting gasoline leaf blowers—electric ones need to be recharged too frequently, I was told—does not add credibility to the overall uncreative bureaucratic reach of that institution. 

Journalists who cover the climate/biodiversity crises have now banded together across the globe to share scientifically based climate news and expand local coverage around the world. The organization Covering Climate Cooperative (www.coveringclimate.org), launched on Earth Day 2021, has also launched the 89 Percent Project: “The overwhelming majority of the world’s people—between 80 and 89%, according to recent science—want governments to take stronger action. But that fact is not reflected in our news coverage, which helps explain why the 89% don’t know that they are the global majority.” https://89percent.org

April 21 marks the beginning of a year-long worldwide effort through Covering Climate Now to promote and report on what the 89% of the world’s population want to be done to address the urgent need to act on the climate crisis. 

When hubris gives way to humbleness and wonder, our interactions with Nature will benefit us all. 

“I don’t think you can have a really satisfactory life today without joining in the fight to save our planet…. We’re past the moment where inaction is acceptable.” 
—Kristine Tompkins

You may not know who Kristine Tompkins is, but her Patagonia outdoor clothing company’s products can be found around the world. She is also one of the world’s foremost conservationists. The millions of acres of pristine lands that she and her now late husband Doug bought in southern Chile and Argentina have been the basis for national parks there. With the indispensable aid of many local groups and the added expertise of other conservationists, a widely successful campaign to bring back the jaguar and other megafauna continues to accelerate.

Recently Tompkins spoke with Nate Hagens, the driving force behind The Great Simplification broadcasts, which, through conversations with inspiring individuals, endeavour to make sense of the climate and biodiversity crises and the possible solutions available to our world. In an interview titled “Rewilding 15 Million Acres: Why True Wealth Means More Than Money,” listeners learned that Tompkins’ approach to helping solve the world’s problems is to go at them relentlessly with all the power she can muster—and not look back. She speaks forcefully about how otherwise educated and well-off people abdicate their ethical responsibilities for a blinded consciousness. We usually think of the word ‘abdicate’ as in giving up, voluntarily or not, one’s kingdom or position as head of government, but Tompkins is clearly making this personal. Sure, increasingly governments, educational institutions and corporate executives have brazenly relinquished their social and Nature leadership roles, but so have most individuals, and particularly so in the rich west. This powerfully wrought interview points directly at us. https://tinyurl.com/tompkins-true-wealth

So let’s talk cruise ships and the decision to take them as an abdication of our responsibility to be informed citizens. Most people have bought into the fake narrative given by the largest cruise companies that those ocean or river voyages are, or are on the way to being, a non-polluting way to have a vacation. Bluntly put, this is pure rubbish: food waste, specifically. Some liners are burning it for energy, while others are considering serving up smaller meals, but it seems that many privileged holidaymakers think that huge portions of food go with a cultural experience, and that abundance of food is an entitlement. We all know that food waste is at epidemic levels in our society, but cruise ships are famous for it.

The sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from the heavy oil used in cruise ships have a massive impact on human health, but although there has been a push by cities affected by this pollution to electrify cruise ships while at port in order to allay local outrage, a minuscule number of ships have taken advantage of this objective. 

Although the cruise industry is embracing ‘natural’ gas energy to power its ships away from very dirty oil, methane gas (euphemistically called natural gas) contains its own turbocharged climate baggage, so it is not a viable solution.

Cruise ships are now being banned or told to leave areas where there are large concentrations of people. The air in Venice improved by 80% after monster ships were no longer permitted to dock there. Amsterdam is taking another approach. Hester van Buren, the city’s deputy mayor, stated: “Sea cruising is a polluting form of tourism and contributes to crowds and emissions in the city. By limiting sea cruises, requiring [them to use] shore power and aiming for the cruise terminal to move from its current location in 2035, the council is responsibly implementing the council’s proposal to stop sea cruises.” https://tinyurl.com/amsterdam-cruise-ships

Barcelona’s citizens are also resisting the menace, and the proposal for a cruise port near Rome has equally experienced local opposition. Overtourism is the reason Nice, France will stop cruise ships docking, and in Belfast, Maine any ship with more then 50 passengers will be prohibited.

Remember that air pollution is only one of many different kinds of pollution. It is still not uncommon to discover all sorts of trash and oil slicks jettisoned from these floating cities. Many times it is the poorest people’s communities that are chosen for and plagued by the development of infrastructure for cruise ships. 

For two decades there has been a campaign by the cruise industry to encourage professional medical organizations, as well as others, to hold conferences on its ships. These conferences are often billed as “continuing education” cruises, so they are written off as professional events. https://tinyurl.com/cruise-education

On top of this, many delegates will be travelling by plane to get to the ship, so these presumed educated elites are drastically intensifying their carbon impact.

Obviously it is not only medical conferences that fill these ships, but our neighbours take them too, and perhaps you do as well. We are, furthermore, given the green light to take these “voyages of a lifetime” when we learn that the World Wildlife Fund gives advice on how cruise companies can lessen their impact on wildlife. Millions of dollars are given for such advice. “Training or awareness materials for cruise line staff on wildlife products and laws can help prevent problems onboard. Cruise lines and tour operators can invest in awareness programs that are positive and empower passengers to make informed decisions.” In other words, on your trip around the Galápagos don’t put a tortoise in your pocket. https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/our-solution

The hype of exploration-type cruises feeds rich westerners the WWF-type collaboration and “we care about the wellbeing of the planet” mantra. As an example, after flying to southern Chile from North America and Europe, rich customers board polar ships to wander around and see icebergs and penguins off the coast of Antarctica. In some cases National Geographic wildlife photographers are embedded in these $75,000-a-pop extravaganzas. This makes these luxurious guzzling trips look official and even promotes a serious educational goal. People readily buy into this misinformation because they wish to abdicate any ethical concerns for the prestige these opulent excursions afford. 

If we all committed to making informed decisions, no one would ever take a cruise ship. The legacy of such holidays is obvious: more intensified climate and biodiversity chaos affecting your children, grandchildren and probably you. Abdicating responsibility is what the global north excels at. Colonialism continues in many forms; billionaires are the latest manifestation of a take-all society best expressed in 2025 with the rise of oligarchs’ take-over of governments. 

But still people flock to the deals for cruise vacations that can be as low as $600 for six nights. These next few months will have all sorts of bonanza for the undereducated and “couldn’t care less” cruiser. The butcher, the school teacher, the yoga instructor and the philosophy professor are equally culpable in answering the cruise call. 

Naturally, cruise ships die, and when they are about to, they land in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh or Turkey to be dismantled at a heart-rending price for local communities and ocean ecology. In Pakistan, workers earn US$4 a day for shifts as long as 16 hours. Accidents are frequent and corruption is rampant, making it difficult or impossible for relatives to receive compensation. See: https://tinyurl.com/cruise-ships-die

Global south citizens don’t take cruise ships, but a portion of 10% of the world’s population found in the global north often do. Ecocide and social justice issues have long been a part of industrial society. This entitled folly must end if there is to be anything left to sustain all forms of life.

Let us return to the words of Kristine Tompkins: “To abdicate your own heart, lungs, mind… That is the most crushing, fatal lack of a decision you will ever make. You are abdicating your own future, hands down.”