Ed Barajas teaching kids and their parents about NATURE.. the old fashioned way! Out IN IT!
Read another article today.... another group of experts talking about Climate Change. This time this group, from the
United Nations, says that protecting biodiversity is MORE important then working to stop Climate Change! Then I read that another group of scientists who have grouped together to try to get President Obama to DO something about the BP spill.. but he is setting up another panel to
study BP's destruction of this huge water body ... OH, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! But the real problem may be that government types are
scientifically ignorant and
illiterate. And being on the edge - sort to speak - of a massive global ecological collapse (see articles above) it makes sense why smart things are not done like they are in "DeMovies" (my grandparents, who made their living in the entertainment business, used to say, "In da moo-in pit-tsures!"). Humans have always made terrible messes of their environment (read '
Collapse', by Jared Diamond, and don't forget his other book, '
Guns, Germs, and Steel') and this Discovery Center Authority is just another blip in the paleontological scheme of things.
So, why do I write about this on a blog about a California Governmental Agency... the RMC ... (as per my grandparents, again - Govern-mental) that calls itself a CONSERVANCY (HA!) and wants so badly to build a huge building, with a big parking lot (where's the 'green mentoring' on public transportation????), a giant catch basin for the gas and the (?BP?) oil from the parking lot (of COURSE it won't leak into the soils above the drinking water aquifer!)? And then they say this is all for... da children, to TEACH dem 'bout NATURE? Well, it's kinda the same. Just a smaller tragedy.
Remember, the best Shakespearean tragedies were of smart people with really large-dumb-blind spots which cause them to eventually kill themselves and their loved ones.
Ok.... now I have written this downer article ... I am going to do something positive! Let's stop this stupidity by demonstrating how to teach nature to kids and the adults.
Meet me half way! LET'S GO!
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_15517142?source=rss
ReplyDelete...Is about the Student Conservation Association's "Angeles Wildfire Recovery Project" - gaining priceless increases of understanding fauna and flora, weather and watershed and humanity's custodial relationship to it (whilst dependent upon it!), as well as lessons of life, work, worth and true satisfaction.
It's a small project, planned for no more than 30 people - but 30 people can do a lot and make infinite positive 'ripples on the water' when the work they do helps to prevent wildfires, repair erosion and reforest the devastated and desertified.
Imagine, if for only one day, or even a few hours, all our war-employed (and their budgets and useful materiel) were employed similarly here, indisputably and altogether benignly serving their country in its own borders!
More do-ably, imagine if park-going family bunches, suitably attired and equipped, took a couple of hours out of weekend rec time to clear dead brush, nasty invasives (like thistle), plant useful & rare native veg, put up signs, etc., in the Narrows Natural Area and elsewhere, especially the wildlife corridors of which the Narrows is the 'belt buckle'. I daresay the same would develop into a force which would help to restore the breaks in those 'belts'!
Imagine if the 'parks and recreation' concept actually went BACK TO NATURE instead of regimenting children into (further) anxiety-provoking competitive sports and quasi-classroom 'activities'!