“Aflockalypse” — Mass Animal Deaths Now Mapped on Google
You have to admit, the news is a little weird: 5,000 blackbirds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas; tens of thousands of dead fish in Chesapeake Bay; 50-100 dead birds found strewn in lawns in Sweden; 40,000 dead crabs washed up on England’s shores; 530 penguins, numerous other seabirds, five dolphins, and three giant sea turtles dead in Brazil; 200 American Coots dead on a Texas bridge; hundreds of snapper fish dead in New Zealand. And the list keeps growing.
Eerie coincidence? Or just a symptom of the digital age where news travels faster than you can say “The End is Nigh?”
You can now keep track of what is being called “Aflockalypse” on Google Maps.
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Okay, we're often asked how we feel about 'the end times', or 2012, or the Apocalypse, etc. We are of the opinion that a planet is alive, but with a 'consciousness' very different than ours, a body designed to survive an approximately 10-billion-earth-year journey (give or take a half-billion years as we measure them today), which, if it requires a mind requires one that can't comprehend human life any more than we can comprehend the lives of the probably innumerable minuscule flora and fauna that inhabit our bodies. She may be aware of us, but mostly in a sort of abstract way; when our population becomes imbalanced we affect her health but we're fairly easily dealt with by allowing nature to take it's course. I say, 'if she requires a mind', because her place in the Universe is to orbit this yellow star until it turns red, expands, engulfs her, and the physical processes that are her life give way to the physical processes of her death and decay. She's not (as near as anyone can tell) designed to think or make what we'd call purposeful decisions, just to spin, keep her place in the solar system (barring unforeseen circumstances), and support whatever survives on her being. She makes no judgment about what happens or what's done to her; it would serve no purpose in her life. She doesn't even consciously react. She has no will. She does not get angry. But her body is as affected as any other in the physical universe by the forces surrounding and motivating it, so she shifts, she changes, she even does react, but only physically. When the solar wind hits her it can change her shape and the shape of her atmosphere. When she flies through a comet debris field or an asteroid belt she runs the risk of being hit. She doesn't care. It is what it is.
But for *us* these things can be devastating, like taking a shower is devastating to a large percentage of the population of dust mites that inhabit us all and without which we'd all drown in a sea of dead skin and shed hair, or like laser treatments are devastating to our hair follicles. Likewise, when we fracture her bedrock there is an effect. When we fill her atmosphere with gases, there's an effect. Every effect we have on her affects some portion of the population with which we share her whether it has any real effect on her or not; sometimes only locally, sometimes globally. No matter what we do she's going to be shifting and expanding and shrinking, and burping and bleeding and all the things every body does (even dead ones, thanks to all the life serving to take them into the next part of their material cycle), and due to the nature of what she is, part of all that will (and often has) include(d) shifting her poles, which is nothing but a shrug for her, but can be anything from a burp to, well, an Apocalypse for those living on her. It is known to science that her magnetic field is magnetic field is currently decreasing. Whether that will result in a reversal remains to be seen, but isn't out of the question. Whether a reversal or even mere instability in the field would result in the end of days also remains to be seen, but also isn't out of the question. What 'end of days' would mean also remains to be seen.
We believe that, no matter what physical processes take place in and around the earth, humans are reaching a critical point of understanding or lack thereof. We believe that in coming days the open transmission of knowledge will be paramount to human survival, and that we'll have to learn in the process, in order to facilitate an open and productive society, to set aside our differences and focus on common goals. We believe that survival will be possible even for those who choose to exclude themselves from such a society (by their own will or the will of people who don't want them around), but we believe it will be easier and that recovery will be faster for those who are able to work together. I'd say, '... recovery will be faster if society should fall', but I think it's safe to say that recovery is already necessary, even if nothing gets any worse, and with the attitudes we see coming from too many sides we suspect it's going to get worse. Perhaps, even probably, much worse.
That's the part we can do something about. We can't stop Earth from shifting or shaking. We can't stop the Sun from sneezing in her face now and then. We can only stop ourselves from making it all worse. We can watch our attitudes and make conscious, caring choices (not sympathetic ones, but empathetic). We can assume that people are doing their best and if they want to do better we can teach them rather than condemning them. If they don't want to do better we'll have to choose how long we can afford to carry them, and that's where sympathy must give way to understanding. A person who won't do the best they can in ways we think they should may redeem themselves in other ways, or they may not. In a society as seemingly prosperous as America has been in the last hundred years it's been easy to carry those who wouldn't pick themselves up. As it gets harder it won't be a matter of not wanting to do so, but of not being able to. We need to be prepared to make very difficult choices (and hope those choices never come to bear). Unfortunately much of our appearance of prosperity has been a facade in recent years and the veneer is, at this point, peeling away in huge strips. We need to be prepared to humble ourselves to those who offer help, and steel ourselves against those who would exploit our weaknesses (many of whom will be 'our own'; Americans who are so selfish they'll take food from the mouths of starving babies before they'll go hungry an hour). These are skills that are always useful, so practicing them when we see no immediate danger (when is there not the possibility thereof?) can only help, even just in the day-to-day.
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