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Feature Article June 6

Feature Article June 6,2003

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Back to NatureBy Bill RowsomeWhen poplar seedlings root along the edge of my back lawn it is time to begin brushing again: a sweaty process as I slowly encroach on Mother Nature's handiwork. Frequent pauses are needed to catch my breath and reflect on the futility of it all. Where to place the dividing line between my devastation and the forest's beauty? But it is an easier decision than trying to define a nation's boundary and then battling over who owns the disputed land. We are blessed in our isolated little world of North Frontenac, where many of us live with Mother Nature as our closest neighbour.

Mother Nature, despite our interference, does persevere, but is there a limit? How close are we to the point of no return when she can no longer recuperate from our slashing, burning and overuse? It doesnt take her long to have her maverick plants, the dandelion, burdock, thistle and mustard poke their way through our abandoned asphalt roadways and parking lots, or for her weed trees to consume my yard, but will it always be so?

Will she be able to restore life to the vast stretches of deserts in Africa? Can she overcome our destruction of the rain forests in South America and Indonesia? Will the Middle East landscape, alleged to be the cradle of civilization, ever recover from the savage religious wars (that is an oxymoron if there ever was one) that seesaw over its surface? Will she heal from the continual paving over prime growing soil in North America? Will ever-increasing air and water pollution choke her before she regains her breath to continue her battle of restoring natural habitat? Will the oceans of the world ever restock after we have wantonly interfered with a natural process by our ever-increasing and demanding search for food? Will the vanishing ozone layer be replaced before the sun turns our skins even more cancerous?

If she is paying attention she must be very disheartened by our demands, or are we only the latest evolutionary conclusion of a succession of expendable earthly species?

Fortunately, to date her weeds are persevering, breaking up the ground for the orderly evolution of grasses, flowers and trees. Beauty and a healthy environment will return if we give her half a chance.

Can humanity emulate her process? Will mankind ever reach a similar balance when thoughtfulness will evolve after past and present human destroyers have broken up the veneer of civilization? Will destructive tribes and warring nations ever be replaced by beautiful, caring societies? Hopefully humans will learn to live in harmony; letting natural selection sort out the bad and propagate the good, but not as long as we so violently disagree on what is good and what is bad and unduly interfere with the process. Not until our religions can agree that all beliefs of a Benevolent Being are valid and She/He really cares for all, supposedly a cornerstone in most faiths.

My labouring for more lawn than I really need is physically exhausting and provokes discouraging contemplation. I must relax and make a cup of coffee that will give a sweating labourer in a Brazil coffee plantation an hour's wage. He will help relieve my anxieties by further destroying Mother Nature, but not in my back yard.

With the participation of the Government of Canada