Celebrating World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day and we get it crowned with a full moon. How delightful. Even though things are far from settled around the nation and the world, I need to move off the track of doom and gloom and focus on something different - at least for today. So, the environment seems a good choice because it's so varied, so amazing, and somehow life manages to exist almost everywhere on earth. 

Life is hard for the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica. Now they're falling
ill because they've been studied so much and are in greater contact
with humans. 

Let's start with the deep cold, since we're in the middle of an unseasonable heat wave here in the Frozen Northlands. Thinking about the deep cold turns my thoughts to Antarctica which turns my imagination to Emperor Penguins. I adore penguins anyway, but these guys are the prize. Huddling in huge groups of ever-moving birds that circle from the frigid exterior rings to the warm interior ones and back again, the males carry the eggs on their feet as they move in and out. If the egg falls off, the chick dies - not instantly, but very quickly. There aren't a lot of second chances in the ice and snow of Antarctica. 

The Amazon Rainforest is amazing, stretching as far as the eye
can see. It's being seriously impacted by clear-cutting, however,
which is changing the ecosystem in a way that may not be able
to recover. 

Moving to a bit warmer climate, how about the rain forests of Brazil. Without the rain forest, our world may well die. But this forest is dying - clear-cutting for new places to live and for materials for resale are killing the trees and environment. The Amazon will still flow, it takes a lot to kill one of the world's great rivers, but the breath that a forest can give to the land is being stifled. I hope this trend can be reversed, we need our rain forests. 

The Sahara Desert in Morocco is stunning - ever-shifting dunes punctuated
by settlements around oasis of water. Once upon a time the Sahara was
lush and green. Climate change turned it into desert and it's growing
larger every year. 

Across the world from the forests lie the deserts that are increasing daily across Northern Africa. Deserts are another amazing feature of our world and they have their own remarkable life within and upon them. For mankind to live on the deserts is difficult and dangerous - water is essential to life and barely exists in a desert environment. But people do live here - not in the absolute depths of the desert, but at the fringes and the oases that exist. The deserts are increasing, sending their sands forward into villages and towns, slowly expanding their reach. 

There is nothing quite like the Himalayan mountains - the backbone
of the world. These almost impassible mountains are still growing
annually as plate tectonics works its magic miles below ground.
Aren't they magnificent? 

The mountains are an environment I'm more familiar with because I grew up in the mountains. These examples of the earth's cataclysmic formation rise high into the sky, attracting and influencing weather patterns throughout the world. It can be harsh living, close to the top of the world, but all over, in almost every continent, people brave the altitude and weather patterns and live close to the clouds. The eternal city of Shangrila is rumored to be in the Himalayas, the tallest mountains on earth. Maybe you'll be fortunate enough to see the world from the top of a mountain peak sometime in your life. It's an experience like no other. 

I realize there are other environments - lake country, the plains and prairies, the high mesas, and the deep fjords of Northern Europe to name a few. But, I think I've given you enough diversity for one day. We live on a remarkable planet where there's something for almost anyone if they're willing to take a chance. We are the caretakers of the earth and I suspect if we don't live up to our obligations, Mother Nature will toss us away and start again. Have a safe and happy Friday and I'll be back tomorrow.