Of course it was the ultimately the simple utterance of "yop!" by that one recluse geeky Who that finally adds enough oomph to the other Who cries and screams of "we are here, we are here, we are here!" to break through and let the world know that in fact, they were there. Luckily, the aforementioned "yop!" comes just at the nick of time, just as Whoville and the clover it finds itself within as well as Horton, the elephant, who heard the Whos down in Whoville from within said clover, are about to be boiled in oil. Disaster averted.
Growing up watching Dr. Seuss cartoon specials I always had this sense that no matter how bad or twisted or out of whack the problem (think Cat in the Hat and that mess in that house or the Grinch or even green eggs and ham), there was always a solution. Crises were always able to be averted. That is, until I saw the Lorax. Suddenly Dr. Seuss wasn't so funny. Now, Dr. Seuss was prophet.
So, what does this have to do with climate change? Follow me. I may not know where I am going, but I'd rather be lost with someone else than lost alone...
That there is even time or the will to entertain doubt about the reality of climate change astounds me. But then again, I feel the same about creationism and anti-intellectualism in general. I can not fathom the mind that will insist on denying data. Data are clear -- we are on a really frightening path towards more and more profound, irreparable damage to this planet. And like the Whos down in Whoville, we are somehow unable to find that last voice -- the "yop!" if you will -- that finally breaks the barrier down between those who can hear and those who won't hear.
So I get to digress now, sorta...
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Photo time
Some new shots of some hummingbirds:
at sunrise
out in golden gate park
playing in the echium
doing a swan dive
I have no explanation as to why I can photograph hummingbirds without them coming out all blurry. But I am struck by how fragile that bird ultimately is, for all its pomp and quickness and agility, it is a very small bird in a very big world.
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I also have this passion for orchids. Earlier this year, I joined the Board of the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. One afternoon I joked with the gardener for the Grove that I would love to see some, ANY orchids in the grove, all the while fully aware of the problems in trying to get native orchids to settle in the Grove, cost, care, etc.
Much to my amazement (and the gardener's also!) this past August, what did we come to discover in the Grove? A wild orchid (specifically an Epipactis helleborine), commonly known as the "weed orchid." The only explanation we could come up with for the orchid appearing so suddenly is that we finally have been able to have what was once a dry creek in the middle of the Grove finally have water again.
Once the creek was no longer dry, birds started showing up in the Grove in numbers we have never seen before and in such amazing varieties. And then so too the orchid:
in bloom at the lip of the creek
the other bloom stalk
a detail of the orchid flowers
an entirely separate orchid, growing along the ridge of the Grove
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Which brings me to the Lorax. You remember how it ends...
No more Bar-ba-Loots, no more Truffula Trees, no more Humming Fish, no more Swomee Swans, all that's left is the Once-ler and abandoned Thneed factories.
The Lorax, who spoke for ther trees, who warned the Once-ler of the grave and irreparable damage being done by so wantonly pillaging the earth, is gone too.
We only hear of the Lorax and the Truffla Trees and the Bar-ba-loots and the Swomee Swans and the Humming Fish because some kid pays the Once-ler to tell him the story. Even amidst the desolation of the world around him, caused by him, the Once-ler still can not help but capitalize on the situation at hand and make a few bucks (actually "15 cents, a nail, and the shell of a great, great, great grandfather snail").
No happy ending in this Dr. Seuss story, no last-minute "hail Mary" pass, no Thing 1 and Thing 2, no sudden tripling of the heart's size, no nothing. Just a memory. And even that carried a cost to it...
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Sadly, while life is not like most Dr. Seuss books, this would be the one story that is too close to being made too real all too quickly.
In spite of the warnings, the Once-ler kept destroying and damaging, until it was too late.
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By the way, the Epipactis helleborine along the creek bed has a new growth that was just starting a few weeks ago, now that it is finished with its bloom cycle:
And in my garden, one of my Masdevallia orchids has actually bloomed for the first time ever since I put it outdoors two years ago:
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I can't help but fear that this just might be my Bar-ba-loot of sorts:
I just don't want this to be the end of the story:
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For the sake of the planet, the orchids, the hummingbirds, and the Bar-ba-loots, take action.
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Schedule for today's Climate Change Action Blogthon:
7:30am dsnodgrass
10:30am LaughingPlanet
11:30am Kitsap River
1 pm dadanation
1:30pm Patriot Daily
2pm Patch Adam (1400)
2:30pm bob zimway
3:30pm Patric Juillet (AAF)
4pm RLMiller
4:30pm Runaway Rose (or 5 pm)
5pm Brian Amer (5 pm or later)
5:30pm rb137
6pm boatsie
7pm ALifeLessFrightening