November 30
Remembrance Day for Lost Species
This article could have done with a photo of Martha, the last passenger pigeon the world would ever see, or perhaps a Tasmanian tiger. Perhaps I could have used a photo of the great auk, a beautiful bird we decided to swipe away from the face of this planet just so we could use its final strips of flesh as fish bait.
But since neither of those species exist anymore, for no other reason than the tendency of people to not wish to see the outcome of their selfishly grounded reasoning, people thinking it their own selfish right to act with impunity, well because of that I can't of course take a photo of any of those beautiful animals because they do not exist anymore. Not for natural reasons, that would have been perfectly ok, life is after all just life but they are gone for man made choices.
And that is not ok.
You see, today, November 30 is the annual 'Remembrance Day for Lost Species'. A day to contemplate the choices our species make and the way we change life for everybody else and this entire planet by the things we chose to do.
This day is, of course, about all those poor people & species we have already lost to our own short-sighted and selfish choices. But I think that what is even more important is that this day is also about you and me, and all of humanity and the choices we make together today and tomorrow.
The past is the past, and no one can change that. But we can learn from it and we can see what past choices did to this planet and our life today.
So with that in mind.
The passenger pigeon that´s us.
What we did to the passenger pigeon is what we do with each other.
It´s the tigers of the world, the neanderthals, it´s the grandkids of homo sapiens. The Donald trumps and it is the rising sea, it is air pollution, lacking elderly care, lead in our drinking water, the homeless invisible, it is life today and tomorrow.
And like the demise of the Tasmanian tiger, our life today and tomorrow is about the outcome of the choices we make together. The choices our forefathers already did, the choices we do today. The things we will opt to do come tomorrow.
We live in remarkable times where paralyzed people are able to start seeing and communicate, walk and talk and interact with the entire world.
We are building platforms to other worlds, and each other. Our minds can soon see the connected world and reach out through fiber optics and neural networks.
And all this is amazing, pure and simply put amazing.
But we are also living with the result of the passenger pigeon, the 1.8m sea level rise of coastal lines around the world that could happen before 2100, that is the result of the passenger pigeon's demise. We did not just kill a bird, we altered the entire world by all of the choices that led to its demise.
When we work together to create a healthier world by making healthier choices, that is we making sure that there are no more passenger pigeons going extinct, it is us making sure 10 billion people do not suffer come tomorrow, it is us making sure that we wake up breathing a tiny bit better air December 1 and possibly having a sea level rise of no more than 20cm come 2050.
It is us making sure people get to live long, fulfilling lives with healthy food to eat and living. People deserving of decades of joyful years to spend their own way, all throughout life.
It is us saying that, yes we deserve that. We all do.
But it is also all of us saying that, guess what, we do not just deserve that, it´s also good business. A better world, and healthier living, that is what is good business, it's better business even.
Better business for all of us.
This day is us saying that the demise of clean air and the passenger pigeon, that is not good business, it does not give us a better world and those choices never gave anyone a healthier life.
That is what November 30 truly is about. But the passenger pigeon is also worth remembering because some people still claim that its demise is progress instead of all the stupid and selfish choices it serves as an example of, the same people will tell you that climate change is a hoax and that expanding coal despite all its destructive and unhealthy effects on all of us is somehow better than continually building a world of healthier, and happier people.
And that is why this day of remembrance is worth doing and why it is not just about the Tasmanian tiger and Martha the pigeon, but equally much this day, Nov 30, is a day for all of us, our contemporary life and all our health. Our choices in sustainable living, clean energy production, equality between gender, race, class, and sexuality, it is about a dignified and healthy life. Peace and equality between our planet and homo sapiens.
The simple essence of this day and all of humanity is that 'Life is your art'.
music of the day while you are reading our article
Goddess of the sea by Sirenia
The Mouse In our Wall
We play in the snow, under the shooting star
Told to you, as I once told, a mind and girly soul, so beautiful.
Inside the walls of our homes, and lives. There are Undraped windows through which we see both in and out, and at night I look out and up with you.
A shooting star stirs and moves the northern lights. Like a spoon through water, it moves before our eyes. Clear as day yet slightly obfuscated through the sheets of glass, the world is silent and it could be a dream as I witness the star cut through the puffy clouds.
And at night.
Some other times, there we are, walking through life's small moments and we are holding hands.
Together, we stand outside having walked amongst the falling leafs and the subtle snow.
Rain or sunshine matters not.
Looking in, through the of night, all chilly frosty glass, the burning lamps the pleasant light and warmth that moves and lives inside.
Is it empty we ask out loud, or is there someone looking out? Back at us. Do they hear our silent minds, can they feel our burning soul and warming hands.
In between these two sides. Neither looking in or out. Or perhaps, they do them both all the time.
There live a gnarly little furry mouse that moves about with his love and all their friends.
At night, you can hear them talk and hug it out. They move, play and dart around, inside and outside the walls that people build. Sometimes they walk our floors, sitting near, our sleeping faces.
We kiss and make a cute little snowy angel. Your arms wisp around and I kiss your pretty lips, yet again.
And right there. In the corner of my eye. I swear the little mice sits right nearby. Looking out at us as we hug it out.
And perhaps he too thinks the very same. Looking out and about, at us and all the shooting stars.

"The Lost World of Planet Earth"
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