tracks

portraits in the snow

Walking through below freezing temperatures, carrying my daughter on my back, I managed to capture some beautiful evidence of our neighbors in the snow.

They say animal life across the planet is disappearing in both population and diversity. Cell phone towers and widespread pollution seem to permeate consensus reality of Earth today.

When will we decide that enough is enough?

And start to change the narrative?

Arthur Fistenberg, who wrote the book The Invisible Rainbow, sends out a newsletter every once in awhile reporting the atrocities occurring across the planet on animal and insect populations due to 5G cell phone towers and the thousands of satellites now circling the globe.

From his most recent newsletter entitled "reports from around the world”:

Bob writes from England: “I am very old and have always been a naturalist and observer of changes in the world of nature. In the past two decades, I have noticed the decline of butterflies especially those which migrate from France to England, and the absence of insects on the car windscreen. On our farmland we always had a strong rabbit population which soon picked up after the myxi [myxomatosis] decimation, but now I rarely see one. In past years in the spring at night we would have hundreds of Maybugs (cockchavers) flying into our house windows; I have not seen one for years. 

“The work you are doing is essential as you know, our natural wildlife has been my life, several years ago I concluded that we had even then lost some seventy percent of it. We humans are a part of that wildlife. Since the introduction of atomic weapons our future has never been certain, but this is far more subtle and I believe threatening.”

Patricia writes from Missouri: “I have been living in rural southwest Missouri for the last 25 years without a mobile phone. When I bought my home in 2005, the soil on the lot was extremely poor and very compacted from having been driven over with riding mowers for many years. I wanted to bring it back and turn my whole yard into a ‘food forest’. I started by sowing clover and cultivating the dandelions instead of trying to get rid of them as so many people do. After the clover started to blossom, I noticed it was being visited by thousands of bumblebees. I had so many hummingbirds that three feeders were needed to keep them from fighting for access. Mosquitoes were almost non-existent around my area. 

“At night I could see hundreds of bats flying around, and in spring the yard and whole area was filled with the peeping of little green tree frogs. They would perch along the rim of my swimming pool and lay their eggs in the water. (Note, the town does not chlorinate the water supply and I do not chlorinate the pool.) Every morning I would check the pool for their eggs and move them to a small pool that I set up just for the frogs, where I would feed the tadpoles and change the water as needed (keeping the tadpoles in buckets during the changes).

“After I had been living here for six years, the first cell tower was erected at the edge of town. Over the next few years, more towers went up, until the whole area was saturated with RF radiation. The town also used a federal grant to change all the electric meters to electronic ones and do away with the analog meters. Each year since, the number of bumblebees seemed to shrink by half, even though I still have the clover and dandelions. During the past 4-5 years, I could count the number of bumblebees on one hand. The last two years I've seen only one or two per YEAR. The hummingbirds are totally gone. I used to find their nests in the fall when thinning.

“Worst of all is the complete annihilation of the tree frogs. Even friends who live out in the sticks and have ponds on their property have noticed the recent "silent spring" phenomenon. Speaking of silent springs: It used to be nearly impossible to sleep past dawn with the windows open in spring, summer and fall here due to the enormous numbers of songbirds that produced a daily morning and evening symphony. Their numbers have declined to the point where I have to actively listen for them in order to hear them at all.

“I could go on about the diminished numbers of butterflies, crickets, praying mantises, spiders and earthworms I've observed. The declines are not limited to the smaller critters; there used to always be cottontail rabbits in the yard, and I haven't seen one of them in recent years. I have lost more pets to cancer since 2010 than I care to count. There aren't even any mice anymore! My personal health has declined severely as well. At the same time there have been notable increases in the numbers of mosquitoes, chiggers and ticks -- to the point where it is miserable spending a few minutes outside.”

Josephine writes from California:  “All of my ants are gone. No rising population of ants rescuing eggs when I water my roses. No little house cleaners coming in for jelly left on the counter in the kitchen. None coming in during the rain.” 

Can we learn to live among that which gives us life?

Can we learn to live in a way that increases life, diversity and abundance?