Comments on: “Call it what you will” Change

By: Gin Getz

Gin Getz — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:46:32 +0000

Beautifully said, Jean!

By: Jean Dory

Jean Dory — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:10:38 +0000

A drenching hurricane Labor Day. A snowstorm in OCTOBER that left us w/o power 5 days. And then no snow all winter. It didn’t take the environmental science course I took last year to convince me that something is terribly wrong–I’ve seen it for years. We could say it’s just a natural cycle except for one thing–those incriminating photos of the expanding hole in the ozone layer. So I shall weep at all the scenes of cavving icebergs, starving polar bears & penguins, towns ravaged by more frequent tropical storms and higher seas…

By: White Horse Pilgrim

White Horse Pilgrim — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:13:58 +0000

That’s fine writing, Gin: perceptive, passionate and polemical. When will people notice? In my part of the world the aquifers are low, weather has become unpredictable and populations of birds and bees are declining. Yet human attitudes make me feel as if I’m on a runaway train heading towards a wreck. The driver is deluded, the conductor crazy, and the passengers intoxicated or feeble-minded.

I live near a major airport. People fly like an addiction, travel far in the vain hope that happiness lingers there. Why, when you can be happy on your mountainside and me likewise on the grassy hills a few miles from my home?

I cannot speak for the US. Here in Britain people bury their heads to avoid the glaring truth. The aquifers are running dry but people kid themselves that a week of rain proves the experts wrong. They drink themselves into senselessness so as to avoid the blindingly obvious. The so-called “environmentalists” have nothing to recommend except wrecking the mountains with forests of windmills so that we can go on consuming – nature being raped by a relative rather than a stranger. I keep on looking back to the words of a Native American friend: these people are young souls, newbies seduced by goods and technology, too immature to see nature and her sufferings.

Like you say, the Earth is stronger. People could dig up all the coal, extract all the oil and gas, and then humanity would retreat to niche survival of a primitive remnant. What a damning indictment of a species. I’m glad to be getting older, turning fifty and without children.

By: Ann Marquette

Ann Marquette — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:34:30 +0000

Great piece Gin. You share the reality of our time, the sadness of what we do to our earth, and a reminder to take care better care of it. Very thoughtful Gin. I can sense your heart here.

By: Gin Getz

Gin Getz — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:09:01 +0000

Hi Sherie,
Intersting to read your observations compared to John’s above. City and mountain. Visible changes for those who take the time to notice in both places. I find it interesting your comment that no one else seemed to notice. For yes, even in cities there is great natural beauty and hidden wildlife, as you so clearly see. Sad and crazy about the bees… As for temp changes, seems like the only places that have a noticeable increase are the Poles. The rest of us… just seem to be holding onto our hats and facing whatever blows our way.

By: Gin Getz

Gin Getz — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:02:35 +0000

Thanks for your note, John. Hiked up Finger Mesa yesterday, across from the Ute Creek trailhead, newly hit from beetle kill with about 75% of the big ones gone reddish brown. And yes, as we see elsewhere, so much beautiful new growth beneath the big ones. There is always hope…

August we spend camped up on Weminuche Pass working on Fuch’s Ditch. If you see a crazy family running wild in the hills with their horses, slip and cross cut saws, that might be us! We can ride over West Ute and back home and stop in at your camp to visit on a resupply trip! And if you need anything back at the trailhead, please don’t hesitate to stop in at our ranch. Someone will always be there holding down the home front.

Have a great summer indeed!

By: John

John — Sat, 05 May 2012 11:52:44 +0000

Hi Gin, good stuff. Glad you’re back in the area, too! We’re spending a fair amount of time clearing bug-killed trees from trails in the Weminuche, no end in sight. It’s nature at work, I suppose, and job security for us. My hope is the younger trees under the dead tree overstory will be the new forest. It looks like we’ll be packing a volunteer trail crew into the Ute Creek Trail area next door to you in August, about 8 miles in at the switchbacks; hope you can drop by! :) John N. in Pagosa

By: Sherie

Sherie — Sat, 05 May 2012 02:53:25 +0000

A passionate rap on the land. Well done. Few that I know in my urban city pay any attention to this– closed hearts, maybe? Plants are “pretty” decorative things for yards.
What have I seen? Well, there were many more birds here in Miami than when I was a kid, and their singing was alive; when it rained, dozens of toads came out on the streets. Now the skies are almost silent. Last year, there was one day when I couldn’t see a single bird. I pointed this out to a few people and no one else had noticed. I have seen only one big toad in 10 years. Last month, bees from a beehive outside my window were dropping like flies on to the tiles below, crawling then dying. I counted around 90 dead bees. Pesticides from neighborhood spraying? Who knows. A squirrel came occasionally and ate some, being picky and choosing which it wanted to eat– maybe, the best of the sun-dried bees?
As to weather, in the last 2 years, we’ve had more chilly winter days than usual in Miami, which never had any more than a handful chilly winter days, now its a few weeks even. Temp change, colder not warmer. Strange.
Sherie

By: Gin Getz

Gin Getz — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:38:54 +0000

Wow, thank you, Avalynn!

By: Avalynn27

Avalynn27 — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:33:33 +0000

Your writing is lovely and so are your pictures! They compliment each other very well :)