This European Honeybee is busy doing what only pollinators can do:
Bees, along with all the other pollinators, really are disappearing. Seeing only one bee in a patch of a half dozen or so Sunflowers where bees should be abundant even this time of year is frightening.
The web of life on this planet is exceedingly complex. It is dangerously naive to think we can keep eliminating species, intentionally or not, without dire consequence. At some point the entire system will collapse and take us with it.
Hopefully, we have not unknowingly passed the point of no return. Ecosystem restoration is beginning to be valued, but there is much work left to be done. We are in desperate need of a shift in paradigms.
Manicured, mowed lawns must be replaced with native landscaping and the use of pesticides eliminated except in very limited, highly targeted applications. Agricultural practices that degrade the environment must be replaced with ones that maximize ecological quality.
Generally, my goal is to keep While on a Walk upbeat and inspirational, but when confronted with this horrific and dangerous decline in pollinators, there is no choice but to make the message as blunt as possible: Prosperity and aesthetics that are lethal are neither prosperous nor beautiful.
The web of life on this planet is exceedingly complex. It is dangerously naive to think we can keep eliminating species, intentionally or not, without dire consequence. At some point the entire system will collapse and take us with it.
Hopefully, we have not unknowingly passed the point of no return. Ecosystem restoration is beginning to be valued, but there is much work left to be done. We are in desperate need of a shift in paradigms.
Manicured, mowed lawns must be replaced with native landscaping and the use of pesticides eliminated except in very limited, highly targeted applications. Agricultural practices that degrade the environment must be replaced with ones that maximize ecological quality.
Generally, my goal is to keep While on a Walk upbeat and inspirational, but when confronted with this horrific and dangerous decline in pollinators, there is no choice but to make the message as blunt as possible: Prosperity and aesthetics that are lethal are neither prosperous nor beautiful.
These photographs were taken on my walk along the Roosevelt Park loop trail of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Monday, February 22, 2016.
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