Between a Rock and a Hard Place
"The world is waiting
For a new direction
One based on the laws of nature”
The response to my two newsletters, "The Hunter"
and "Don’t Shoot the Messenger" are interesting.
There is a growing group of people around the
world who abhor the thought of anything being killed, especially
something as majestic as a tiger.
However, when we start our motor cars in the
morning and push out fossil fuels into the atmosphere, we are
killing far more than tigers, we are killing our planet which
supports all life, including tigers.
The irrefutable
fact which is accepted by all reasonable thinking people (some
politicians are not reasonable thinking), is that oceans are lifting
and that low lying areas and coastal cities will in the future be
overwhelmed by the rising oceans causing the displacement of
millions and eventually billions of people.
The process is
already underway. In the country of Bangladesh, where there were once
villages and people, there is now water.
Ironically one of the last viable wild
populations of tigers exists in the Bay of Bengal in an inhospitable
habitat called the Sundarbans. This area is in India and
Bangladesh.
These tigers are famous because their natural prey
include human beings. Tigers in the Sundarbans will swim out and
knock fishermen out of boats and kill them and eat them. They will
also hunt the wood and honey collectors on the land.
The Sundarbans is an inhospitable habitat even
for tigers. To survive, the tigers have had to adapt. This involves
swimming long distances between islands. The tigers catch prey in
the water and on the land. It is an example of how intelligent and
adaptable tigers are and testament to this adaptability that they
still number 300 in this dwindling population (this is probably the
last viable wild population on earth).
However there is one factor to which the
Sundarban Tigers cannot adapt. The rising ocean is taking over more
and more of the coastal forest. As the oceans rise, more and more
Bangladeshis and Indians are forced to the higher ground. These
ecological refugees are fighting for their very survival.
The Sundarban Tiger is now trapped between the rising ocean and the
increasing human populations. This scenario spells disaster for the Sundarban Tiger. I believe it spells disaster for the people as
well.
The Tiger has been described as an indicator
species. These are species that indicate the health of the planet.
Therefore the Sundarban Tiger scenario gives us a glimpse of what is
to come.
Rising oceans displacing millions of people from
low lying areas. Where can these ecological refugees go? If they
migrate to higher ground, these areas are already occupied. Cities
are already overcrowded and ill-equipped to handle the increasing
populations.
There can be only one result. Death, destruction, disease and chaos.
For the tiger who had competed with human beings,
it must now compete with desperate human beings….extinction must follow.
I believe that more and more human beings are
instinctively coming to the realization that life on Earth is
changing for all species including Homo sapiens.
Our leadership is woeful, non existent.
We remain a selfish, un-cooperative aggressive species
unable to comprehend that our survival is tied to the ability to
work together and in harmony with the planet earth.
My instinct tells me that time is running out and like the Sundarban Tigers, we are already between a rock and a hard place.
Tread lightly on the Earth
JV
