A Blog Post for Mom

We lost my mother to cancer this week, so I haven't had time to research one of my usual Saturday history lessons for today.

I've posted a number of my dad's "Environmental Stewardship" columns on this blog; in the day, my mom also wrote columns on the environment that were printed in the state Sierra Club's Muir View (for which she asked me to draw an occasional accompanying cartoon such as the one above), or NorthCountry Journal, or the Racine Journal Times, or Lutheran Magazine. Nature was a shared concern of both my parents; they met in the canoeing club at UW-Madison in the 1950's and continued canoeing for about 50 years. They would have celebrated their 64th anniversary next month.

A church banner Mom had made for her senior citizens' group in the 1970's.

Today, I've decided to give my blog over to her. She left behind a three-ring binder of her various writings, many of which are longer than the internet has left most attention spans. There is no date on this one, which I would guess was written sometime in the mid- to late-1980's.

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Global Legislation for Wildlife

Many species occur in several countries or migrate from one country to another, passing through several countries on the way. This complicates conservation legislation.

In 1973, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, was written. It has been adopted by 80 countries since then. It tackles the widespread illicit trade in 600 threatened species of plants, fish, birds and animals. But the illegal trade will continue until consumers refuse to participate.

A single orchid or Amazonian parrot can fetch $5,000; a fur coat made from South American ocelots can sell for $40,000. Rhino horns are worth their weight in gold. Japan still imports huge quantities of rare wildlife products in spite of the fact that they signed the CITES treaty. Poachers have shot thousands of African elephants for their ivory, which is carved into tourist trinkets.

The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance has been signed by 34 countries. The Convention lists 279 wetland sites of 19 million hectares. Many types of waterfowl will benefit.

There are two more CITES treaties: the World Heritage Convention, and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

Mom's painting of a stream behind the cabin she owned near Millville Hollow in the '00's.

Over 90% of all species that have ever lived have now disappeared. Some became extinct through natural processes. Human exploitation has increased the rate of extinction by 400%. Current estimates are that we lose one species a day now. If habitat loss continues at present rates, we can expect an annual rate of loss as high as 5,000 species per year by the year 2000 — 130 species per day.

What is the value of wild species? A few examples (who knows what we have already lost without discovering its value?): the rosy periwinkle contains a cure for childhood leukemia; armadillos are the only animal useful in the study of leprosy; manatees' slow-clotting blood aids research on hemophilia; shark species are studied for liver and cancer cures; a wild gene provides barley with immunity against disease; aspirin was developed from willow bark; wild Mexican yams contain diosgenin, a contraceptive; tomato plants' resistance to Fusarium wild was provided by a wild Peruvian tomato; sunflowers, cassava and corn also were improved by cross-breeding with wild species.

Usefulness to mankind is not the only value of wild species. Three quotations on the philosophy of "Green Ecology":

"I owe an allegiance to the planet that has made me possible, and to all the life on that planet, whether friendly or not. We have a responsibility to the hundred of billions of people who have not yet been born, who have a right to be, who deserve a world at least as beautiful as ours." — David Brower

"Eventually we may eliminate every 'competitor' for living space on the crowded Earth. When the last creature has been accounted for, we shall have made ourselves masters of all cvreation. We shall look around, and we shall see nothing but each other. Alone at last." — Norman Myers

"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. This we know — the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth." — Chief Seattle

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Lila Berge at a FLOW (For Love of Water) event. She is wearing a t-shirt featuring a portrait I drew of naturalist John Muir; the t-shirt was sold through the Sierra Club catalog in the late 1980's.