I have always been sensitive to animals and how we are disrupting their environments but yesterday was profound and I’m still reeling from it. I turned off a major highway on to a road that winds through a section of the NJ Pinelands, a once protected area that has increasingly been being developed. Farms are disappearing and large housing projects pushing through the landscape. Those big gaudy homes with 3 or 4 car garages. It was near impossible to find the old farmhouses. I couldn’t believe the transformation, hardly saw a large section with Pine trees. Then, as I rounded the bend, there was another huge development in process, gorgeous tall Pines, with long root structures exposed, stacked like dead bodies. Rows upon rows. It was so disturbing. This may sound strange to some, but I could literally feel their pain. We are called the Garden State but we are also the most densely populated state in our country. I love NJ but it’s beauty is being usurped by greed.
In this tale of two squirrels, we see the same force at play that has become the hallmark of our civilization. It’s becoming increasingly clear that our species’ work terraforming the earth and extracting unthinkable potential from its elements has completely disrupted nature. We cause a lot of suffering. Our over-designed society is just now starting to acknowledge this fact. As we recognize that we too are a part of nature, we start to see our own design errors circling back to bite us in the ass.
Deeply true. Nature taught us how to build safety nets but we still haven’t learned. Care!
I have always been sensitive to animals and how we are disrupting their environments but yesterday was profound and I’m still reeling from it. I turned off a major highway on to a road that winds through a section of the NJ Pinelands, a once protected area that has increasingly been being developed. Farms are disappearing and large housing projects pushing through the landscape. Those big gaudy homes with 3 or 4 car garages. It was near impossible to find the old farmhouses. I couldn’t believe the transformation, hardly saw a large section with Pine trees. Then, as I rounded the bend, there was another huge development in process, gorgeous tall Pines, with long root structures exposed, stacked like dead bodies. Rows upon rows. It was so disturbing. This may sound strange to some, but I could literally feel their pain. We are called the Garden State but we are also the most densely populated state in our country. I love NJ but it’s beauty is being usurped by greed.
🆙