What Do You Think Today?

[Kizza]

I think this time of the year, just before the summer kicks our arses down under and as things go green, is bloody beautiful.
Music, food and wine time. With a straw hat, family and friends.
Acoustic music is not just for old folks and priests!

[peter]

Ouch! That's cruel Kizza - just as we are entering the cold dank days of late autumn/early winter when we are either cold or we are wet and the best we can hope for is that we won't be both together!

[Kizza]

Sorry mate, was just appreciating the day. We have a party in the park this weekend. Looking forward to it.
Keep warm mate. Drink tea! I hope your medicinal diet still allows for hearty warm food too.

[peter]

I manage a bit here and there Kizza. I've eaten some seriously good fish of late; think turbot and wild caught sea bass (oh yes!) and a white crab ravioli with truffle and parmesan, so I can't complain too much.

Enjoy your party my friend and have one for me while you do so!

[Skyweir]

mmm.. sounds delicious Pete ..

Im not myself today .. tomorrow .. well today really will be better. It was quite hot here .. 27C which is unseasonably warm for this locale... Id like to finish painting my arbour.

We are currently caring for a very friendly talking Cockatoo .. hes incredibly cute .. says hello and snuggles into your neck.. he even gives the most delicate little kisses. So we have him, two very naughty lorikeets, a couple of rosellas and two Galahs. We have them visiting till their mum relocated .. in a lovely enclosure I originally installed when we had goats. We have an aviary net over the roof to stop them climbing and jumping out.

I love goats they make the most wonderful furkids .. so very engaging.

[Avatar]

Their eyes creep me out.

--A

[Kizza]

I was thinking about Halloween, then I started to think about MARTIN Luther (the German) so I stopped thinking about Halloween.
Is there a solstice coming up or something? Maybe some pagan festival with goats blood? Maybe there is a funny moon around?
All our animals, and the natives outside, are being very vocal. Like even more than normal.
I dunno what to think of that.

[Skyweir]

Their eyes creep me out.

--A

They do have freaky eyes its true .. and this little guy is all sorts of cute .. he even kisses you on the lips which is adorable .. but his eyes look like he could also kill you while you sleep

[Kizza]

Sounds good Sky.
Sometimes watching magpies I get the whole Jurassic thing.

[peter]

Av - you've been listening to too many Stones albums!

I was thinking about Halloween, then I started to think about MARTIN Luther (the German) so I stopped thinking about Halloween.
Is there a solstice coming up or something? Maybe some pagan festival with goats blood? Maybe there is a funny moon around?
All our animals, and the natives outside, are being very vocal. Like even more than normal.
I dunno what to think of that.

There was a huge 'hunters moon' in the UK a day or two ago; moons will make animals (and humans as well, incidentally) behave weirdly. In the vets, on full moon the dogs used to bark and howl much more than usual.

[Avatar]

--A

[Skyweir]

Today we met up with two of my babies in town .. such a perfect day .. a perfectly acceptable 25C .. I thought to myself as I looked around .. how beautiful this world is. The sun, the green verdant grass, flowers popping up everywhere, we had our dogs with us too. Its pretty challenging not to feel .. something, anything when faced with such perfection everywhere.

It is true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder .. and not all are equally inamoured of living things., though it defies my understanding.

How can we look to our natural world and not feel in awe and admiration if the view? I think its good for one's intellectual, physical and emotional health.

[peter]

All the more distressing then to consider that in the last forty years man has been responsible for a sixty percent drop in the number of backboned (non-human) animals on the planet. That is ridiculous, that since I was in my mid-twenties we have seen over half of all of the animals of the planet disappear, that we have overseen such a decline - and it's not even down to pollution! We just consume and consume and consume and never give a hoot about the legacy we leave behind if it impinges in the slightest on the bottom line. This has to stop and of course it will. Either we get it under control - or the earth does it for us. Let's just pray it happens (either way) before all vertebrate life on this planet is screwed; sure, we're special with our big brains and self-awareness and whatnot - but we're not that special. Better than we die out than continue like this; leave some of the beauty to a more responsible custodian than we have proven to be.

[Skyweir]

Indeed Pete. And that is s horrifying statistic .. is there a link, Id not like .. but would be interested to read it.

I totally agree we are not all that special .. and we do not have a monopoly on consciousness and self awareness either. Science has now established animal consciousness like it was a mystery. The reason it hadnt been established earlier is that such an acknowledgement WOULD affect the BOTTOM LINE. We are selfish, greedy, wasteful .. but humans can do better. Whether they .. we will remains to be seen.

I do feel that there is as much good stuff going on as there is not good stuff

Look after our own small parts of the world .. protect those species requiring protection, be responsible and care for your environments, and by extension surrounding habitats and life forms flora and fauna.

Maybe my perspective is different because we dont live with high level industrialisation .. of course there are factories etc but compared to Europe .. our main issues have come from land clearing, urban expansion .. and our economy is still very driven by agriculture .. which even today is changing .. as farms look to sustainable practices.

As I look out my window and see trees, expanses if untouched land .. the environment looks safe from human fouling. Most of the land here is Crown Land .. and as such unused.

There is always hope .. but maybe not for everywhere. But youre right if we dont address it .. the planet itself will.

[peter]

The WWF have produced a report in the last week or so Sky (for some reason my tablet doesn't do links) which can easily be found by googling 60 percent fall etc. I believe the study looked at 4000 vertebrate species over a wide range of habitats to arrive at this figure. I also, would like to know how it breaks down - the devil is in the detail here - but by any account it's a chilling scenario and the older I get the more I'm coming to value our animal and plant cohabitors for their simple extraordinary being.

[Skyweir]

Beautifully said ..

I will check it out

[Avatar]

Hmmm, according to Endangered Species International, "Of the 44,838 species assessed worldwide using the IUCN Red List criteria, 905 are extinct and 16,928 are listed as threatened to be extinct."

Also, just FYI, 99.9% of all species that have ever lived on earth are extinct.

The current world population of species is 0.1% of all species ever.

It happens guys.

--A

[Skyweir]

Oh my thats terrible.

Id expect that to include all pre end of dinosaur species which would account for a lot.

But I never, imagined that

[peter]

Well, there have been a number of mass extinction events (I believe) where many if not most of the extant species around at the time have disappeared, but I'm guessing these mostly involved invertebrate animals. Nevertheless, this would probably cover a large portion of the ninety nine percent and the rest would be made up of species simply failing against the competition and being 'replaced' by other developing types.

I think what we are talking here is significantly different in that we are seeing reductions in number right across the vertebrate board, without corresponding increase elsewhere to 'fill the gaps'. No doubt new forms will appear to do so, but we may be witnessing the vertebrate 'dinosaur moment' here - and this time it may be us that is the meteor!

[Avatar]

Oh, we're contributing, have no doubt about that. But extinctions, like climate change, are perfectly natural.

I don't like it, but it's the reality.

--A