Live Simply, So The Birds Can Simply Live

- photo credit Brian Sullivan

I wait for the return of the swallows every spring. For me, they rival the robin for the position of Official Harbinger of the season. 

On the west coast we lived close to a vehicle bridge under which many swallows nested in their little mud homes built on the girders. Now on the east coast, we live on an old farm that has old, open outbuildings, including a small barn, that provide perfect nesting sites for swallows. 

Over the years the wait for the swallows in spring has become troubling.

In Nova Scotia (like most of North America), swallow numbers are down dramatically since the 1980s. It is hardly an isolated case in the bird universe. These ancient descendants of dinosaurs are finally being done in by the new kid on the block, Homo consumericus. 

There are so many threats to the ecosystem that it is difficult to finger any one cause for the decline of birds. More than likely, these threats operate synergistically and therefore become a greater threat together than any one individually.

"The main causes of the recent decline in Barn Swallow populations are thought to be:

 

1) loss of nesting and foraging habitats due to conversion from conventional to modern farming techniques;

 

2) large-scale declines (or other perturbations) in insect populations; and

 

3) direct and indirect mortality due to an increase in climate perturbations on the breeding grounds."

- Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada 

And I would add: 

4) high consumption lifestyles.

Because of the above, each spring when I spot the first barn swallow of the year, my heart skips a beat. Each returning individual is cause for celebration.  

Before long, small groups of swallows are squeaking and hunting acrobatically around our house, in the yard, and over the fields. When successful breeding takes place, the numbers increase in a most joyous way.

Each barn swallow can eat up to 1000 insects every day. They are perfectly designed to inhabit a specialized niche, which happens to encompass the human world (they like us!), and they do so with balance and efficiency. 

Something else I appreciate is how they demonstrate fearlessness and confidence in their flying skills as they zoom through the air, seemingly recklessly, but in full control.

If only I could live as simply and efficiently as these wonderful birds, without doing any harm, being supremely good at what I do, while adding beauty and a useful service to the circle of life. 

I live simply, so the barn swallows, and other birds, can simply live. When it comes down to choosing between a high consumption lifestyle and the birds, I choose birds.

It would truly be a "silent spring" if the swallows and other birds continued their current vanishing act right into extinction. I would miss them dearly.

Insectageddon Calls For Lifestyle Changes

“Our planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals — the sixth wave of extinctions in the past half-billion years. We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.  

Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, it occurs at a natural “background” rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we’re now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate, with literally dozens going extinct every day.”
  

Source: The Extinction Crisis, Center for Biological Diversity, biologicaldiversity.org

Without insects and other land-based arthropods, EO Wilson, the renowned Harvard entomologist, estimates that humanity would last all of a few months.

Even if this were the only problem facing us (it isn't), it would be enough to prompt some serious questions about where civilization is headed, and then consider some serious solutions, like radically changing the way we do everything.

You can't separate the way we live from the challenges we face, like Insectageddon. There are better ways of doing things that respect all life on Earth, and if we are to save ourselves, we will need to adopt them, and soon.

First insecticide, then ecocide, then humanicide. As they go, so go we.

We Are Reaching A Tipping Point

Living simply helps push us back from the brink, Image: Guy Billout

While looking through my writing file today I came across an old draft, and was unsure of why I didn't post it when I wrote it. The ideas are as applicable today, if not more so.

November 20, 2009

You don't need to be a Hopi elder to see that there are seriously strange days ahead. Climate change, an aging population, peak oil, H1N1, water shortages, and continued use of violence and war as the way to solve problems are only some of the things slapping us in the face.

The continuing global economic meltdown is a beast all on its own. Everything seems to be racing toward a tipping point. Are you prepared? Do you feel confident moving forward?

Those with vested interests are trying to convince us that things are improving. Or that technology will come along that will enable us to deal with all our problems. Some deny that the problems even exist.

We have been lulled into near-comatose complacency over the past several decades, trusting that government and corporate interests were aligned with the people's.

Governments around the world are lavishing our cash upon the gatekeepers of a broken system. With record debt loads, the coming years will see government, corporate and personal cuts in spending. Expect higher taxes and fewer services.

We are rapidly tipping toward a day when we will all be required to fend for ourselves, whether due to an extended power outage, water shortages, or economic collapse. Daniel Pinchbeck writes that, "the support structures upon which we have relied are dangerously corrupt and no longer dependable."

One reason I am a proponent of voluntary simplicity is that it allows me to focus on living according to my values. By living more self-sufficiently, I am reducing my dependence on, and support of, a corrupted, unsustainable system.

Radical changes in the way we live and how things are structured are needed. It will be a positive change as we readopt some of the ways of the past, and formulate new ones.

It will be a saner, slower, more sustainable life, once we adjust. It will prevent humanity from hitting the tipping point.