Spirit Father asked Turtle to bring some mud from the bottom of the sea so he might make dry land on the Earth. Turtle dove down deep into the abyss. Deeper and deeper Turtle swam until at last in the perpetual blackness she touched the bottom with her beak. She scooped up as much mud as she could carry in her mouth and began to swim upwards. As she swam, some of the mud was washed from her jaws, so that when she finally broke the surface of the ocean only a small amount remained. Spirit Father took the ball of mud from Turtle, thanked her, and began to flatten it out in his hands. The mud grew larger and larger in Spirit Father's hands until the mud became the dry land. The land is called Turtle Island.A native legend about the creation of North America that is hardly scientific. Yet Turtle Island is the symbol and spiritual inspiration of a modern conservation movement based on scientific principles and a radical vision to save the remaining wild species on the continent from extinction. There is a consensus among biologists that Earth is experiencing a loss of species at a rate that rivals previous episodes of mass extinctions in it's geologic history. It is the Sixth Extinction. You are probably familiar by now with the Cretaceous Period extinction in which the saurians died. There were also mass extinction at the end of the Triassic, the Permian, Devonian and Ordovician Periods. In the Third Extinction, ninety percent of all species died out. The significant difference of the Sixth Extinction is that human activity rather than natural cause is responsible. Edmund O. Wilson, eminent biologist, estimated in 1993 that 30,000 species a year are being lost. Man has had a negative affect on Earth's other species since he first arrived in an evolutionary perspective. The demise of Pleistocene mega fauna in North America was probably caused by man's extreme hunting pressure. But the effect has accelerated since he began agriculture, which allowed overpopulation, and then industry, which is changing climate. By 2050 over half of current species alive will be extinct.
The death of animal and plant life may leave some anthropocentric humans cold. Extinction of life on a mass scale means forces are at work that will eventually threaten man himself. One obvious example is the dying coral reefs around the world. A global survey of reef fisheries shows that more than half of reefs where governments collect data are being degraded beyond recovery by overfishing. Thirty million people depend on coral reef fisheries for food and livelihood. In previous extinctions, environmentally sensitive coral reefs have been among the first organisms to die resulting in a chain reaction of extinction. Pollution killing wildlife works its way up the food chain and poses a health threat to man. All fish in the United States are contaminated with mercury which causes brain damage and possibly heart disease. Increases in ultraviolet radiation and pollution may be killing amphibians whose remarkable skin is unable to adapt fast enough to environmental changes. Cancers are a leading cause of human deaths. Blanketing the Earth with microwaves may be causing bee colonies to collapse. US farmers are having difficulty finding enough bees to pollinate their crops. Green plants absorb carbon dioxide and expire oxygen. More examples of life's interdependence on Earth come to our attention daily. Preserving healthy populations of wildlife and their natural habitat therefore has positive effects on the survival of the human species.
The Wildlands Project has been a low profile movement to preserve, connect and later expand wild areas exclusively as biological reserves on the continent. A modern version of Noah's Arc if you will. It is a radical vision to reshape the continent that may take a century or more to realize. Wildlands are made up of core areas of national parks and preserves that allow for little human use. These cores are surrounded by buffer zones of acquired land that is open to more sustainable use. These large tracts of land including entire ecosystems, perhaps as large as 25 million acres, are connected to each other by corridors permitting wildlife migration and foraging. A mind boggling 50% of the North American continent would be locked away from development and exploitation according to these visionaries. The movement encompasses the ethics of "deep ecology" which mandates a fundamental change in the way man interacts with his home planet, a reduction of his population, and a respect for all life as having equal value to his own. Even its advocates admit the project is an "extreme manifestation" of public policy. Its scope is continental. Obviously capitalists and industries are scared to death of such a radical and unlikely re greening of 'Turtle Island' that will require a shrinking of America's industrial base. Nevertheless the project has corporate and philanthropic sponsors ranging from Ted Turner to Nike Industries to Patagonia, Inc. One of the frequent criticisms of the first Bush Administration was that it lacked a cohesive vision for a future America. The people who support the Wildlands Project principles certainly have a vision. Now that we are facing a human made ecological crises of global proportions, it's merit should be discussed seriously and extensively.
Note: US Person will be taking a break as he travels to the islands of Darwin's inspiration. Come back later for more high impact blog at Persona Non Grata.