Are we capable of change?

 We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we start to see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.

Aldo Leopold

     It hasn't happened yet, Aldo.

     Laurentian Wetland is a gem in the City of Kitchener, encompassing about 22 acres of wetland and surrounding shoreline, a magnet for wildlife, a haven for the weary urbanite, a refuge from the noise, dirt, clutter and frenzied pace of a city.

     Well that was the idea anyway. A grand idea it was too.

     We could have this.....

   ..... and this.

     How would this be?

     And this, and this.

     We are even encouraged to be good stewards of the environment (not that we should need encouragement).

     That entreaty falls on deaf ears obviously  Community stewardship, it says. What the hell does that mean?

     Far better we throw an old tyre in the water.

     Or dump the sofa cushions.

     Perish the thought that we should pay a couple of bucks and have them disposed of properly.

     Interestingly while I was there, a municipal crew was undertaking the semblance of a cleanup but in the desultory fashion of such crews much was left behind, and for the forty-five minutes I was there the crew of three talked at their truck and I never saw them pick up anything.

     There was no lack of opportunity.

     Might have had to don hip waders at times.

     Don't you love those people who scoop the poop after their dog and hang the bag on a branch?

     I could have presented you with a whole gallery of these.

     Humans are disgusting, I tell you. We are the only species that degrades, pollutes, damages and soils its own environment, knowing full well what we are doing, yet keeps on doing it. How much sense does that make? In the process we poison the land and water and destroy the homes of so many other fellow creatures who have an equal claim on this Earth. In the process we have changed the biosphere so radically that we are experiencing terrifying rises in temperature, out of control wildfires and floods, droughts of epic proportions, oceans that have become huge garbage dumps. And on it goes. We now know that microplastics have been detected in human blood: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/microplastics-found-in-human-blood-for-first-time

      But, I digress. I started by expressing concern over one little wetland in my own area, the region that I have chosen to call home, the place where Miriam and I conduct our daily lives. Wouldn't you think we could join together to keep it clean? It requires, quite literally, no effort to do so.

      We choose this instead.

     Is this really how we want to live? That's a rhetorical question, I suppose, since the answer is obviously. "Yes." Every time I have ever been involved in the cleanup of a natural area, within days the trash  starts to appear again.

     There is no end to it. Is this the styrofoam tray that you tossed out? The one you disposed of properly only to have it picked up by the wind at the dump and dispersed far and wide?

    Is this the landscape you wish to bequeath to your children and grandchildren? The indestructible trash will be here a thousand years from now.

     It makes me very sad that so grand an idea can have gone so awry. I can conceive of no nobler goal than to integrate humans and other wildlife, to have a living, breathing, functioning wetland as part of a neighbourhood, yet the residents seem utterly determined to make sure it doesn't happen.

     If a madman in Russia doesn't start a nuclear conflagration to annihilate us all we may have embarked on a path to do it ourselves. It may take a little longer but the result will be just the same.