World of Wonder

I haven't said much about conservation or ecology in general here, which is remiss of me. It's very important to me for a lot of reasons.

I really object to the idea that nothing on earth has value until it enters some corporation's balance sheet, which is an attitude that's embodied by our present administration. (Of course, in their considered judgment, the corporation should be a major contributor as well, just to keep things in the family.)

Consequently, I consider things like drilling for oil in ANWR impermissible on a number of counts. I do recognize that energy is a critical area, but I consider plundering every possible square inch of the world in order to find a few more drops of oil the wrong answer. Why aren't we going full-bore toward alternatives? (And what progress have we made on hybrid vehicles, by the way? You remember -- the preznit thought it was a bid deal a couple of years ago. Oh, wait -- that was a couple of years ago. I do note, buried somewhere in the news a while back, that some legislatures are actually considering tax rebates on them. Now if they can just stiffen up their manhood enough to vote for surtaxes on SUVs, we might start getting somewhere. Of course, I'm sure that won't make Exxon-Mobil very happy.)

We can take a different approach. It's possible. From NYT:

"It's like a revolution," said Merran Smith, director of the British Columbia Coastal Program of Forest Ethics, an environmental group. "It's a new way of thinking about how you do forestry. It's about approaching business with a conservation motive up front, instead of an industrial approach to the forest."
. . .

Once Mr. Armstrong sat at the opposite side of the bargaining table from the environmentalists, but now he works closely with them. "This needs to be celebrated — it's a big, big deal," he said. "Everyone had a greater interest in resolving the problems than continuing the conflict."




The point being that we've developed an industrial approach to everything, and considering the state of American industry, I think that says enough right there. We don't need to do that. (Let's see the "traditional values" loons tackle that one -- what about the value of honest labor?)




Because if you can take that approach, there are still wonders in the world::

Indonesia - Scientists exploring an isolated jungle in one of Indonesia's most remote provinces discovered dozens of new species of frogs, butterflies and plants - as well as mammals hunted to near extinction elsewhere, members of the expedition said Tuesday.

There's also this story in NYT. Check out the photographs. I thought this one was great.



Just think about the idea that there might be an orchid that no one's ever seen before. (Of course, there are so many that people see rarely anyway.)

By the way, I'm a little dotty about orchids. Being me, of course, I like the little brown funny-looking ones, and find the big showy hybrids in general pretty uninteresting. Here are a few orchids native to places you might not expect.



Cypripedium acaule is native to North America, and can be found as far north as southern Alaska. It's one of our native Lady's Slippers. It is, of course, endangered, as so many treasures are. The worst problem is not really overcollecting -- it's habitat destruction. Duh.










Ophrys apifera is a European orchid. This speciment is from a nature reserve in East Kent.
















Cryptostylis erecta is from Australia. Australian orchids are pretty fascinating all by themselves -- there's one that spends its entire life cycle underground --it even blooms underground. (Needless to say, pictures of that one are hard to find.)





I may do a whole thing on orchids. I think they're totally fascinating, not only because the flowers are unusual, but because of their history and evolution. Really remarkable critters.

In the meantime, think about the world as something that doesn't have to show a profit. And do an image search on Google for "orchid species."

That should keep you occupied.