Charles C. Milliken: When nature comes to call
A report by the World Wildlife Fund, involving “59 scientists” from around the world, stated mankind has wiped out 60% of vertebrates – mammals, fish, reptiles, birds and amphibians since 1970. Another catastrophe we blasted humans have wreaked upon the planet!
As I reflected upon this dire report, I couldn’t help but think about my little corner of the world and wonder about how Bonnie and I are contributing to this mass extinction. Trouble is, assorted vertebrates seem to be doing just fine in our spot in the midst of forests and swamps. Faithful readers of my remarks might recall, about a year or so ago, I commented on a copperhead which decided to take up residence in our house. I must confess to contributing to the decline in the vertebrate population by applying my snake boots to the aforementioned snake. A few days ago, Bonnie treated another one to a brick in our driveway.
On the amphibian front, numerous varieties of toads and frogs have decided to take up residence in our pool. Alas, the chlorine seems not to agree with them. However, in the fall when I drain the pool, and fresh rainwater descends to partially refill it, the little amphibians do just fine. Then, in May, when it’s time to put 30,000 gallons of the best water the city of Orangeburg has to offer into my concrete pond, I carefully catch a couple dozen of the little rascals and remove them to a nearby stream. Tadpoles by the hundreds, regrettably, exit through the submersible pump and probably don’t do too well.
On the mammal front, four feral cats decided to take up residence a couple of years ago, and they persist in hanging around reproducing. Our female, Jolene, has, shall we say, loose morals. Any of you looking to adopt a cute kitten can select from the four she blessed us with a week ago.
Also with respect to mammals, last night we looked out our French doors opening on the small porch where we feed the cats. Lo and behold there was one very fat possum helping himself to what was on offer. (Having researched these creatures, it turns out they are particularly fond of cat food.)
As far as birds are concerned, they seem to be plentiful at our feeders, keeping a wary eye on the cats. So far we’ve seen no evidence of avian slaughter, although I understand domestic cats are one of the biggest killers of birds in the U.S. Ours have done in their share of squirrels, however. By mitigation of our guilt for harboring such killers, squirrels are not on anyone’s endangered list. Ditto cats.
Other mammals seem to do just fine around humans as well. The buffalo are roaming in ever larger numbers. The deer and the antelope continue to play, unfortunately choosing to play altogether too often in front of cars, (and thereby making their small contribution to reducing the human population.) Black bears are expanding their territory into many a backyard, swimming pool and garbage can. Wolves, coyotes and many other creatures seem to be thriving.
So where is all this extinction coming from? Well, the WWF was a bit shy on details. Turns out, after the scary headline, that many animal populations have declined. Not disappeared, just declined. What’s more, the study only looked at certain areas, and certain easy to count species. Elephants, for instance. Lies, damned lies and statistics, I was once told.
Even certain publications usually sympathetic to news about the scourge of humans on the planet cast a skeptical eye on the WWF report. This was in The Atlantic, “…it is unnecessarily pedantic to correct the 60% figure. Why nitpick in the face of calamity? Surely what matters is waking people up, and if an inexactly communicated statistic can do that, isn’t that O.K.”
That is a sentiment shared by every master propagandist in the last hundred plus years. We should all know by now that, no, it is not O.K.
Charles Milliken is a professor emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached at milliken.charles@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Charles Milliken: When nature comes to call
