Friends! 200 years ago the author and ”naturalist” David Henry Thoreau was born. He is mostly remembered for his book about Walden Pond, in Connecticut, USA, and about how he left his village and community to live in a cabin he built by Walden Pond. He immersed himself in Nature, set on  getting to know it and live in respectful harmony with it, without romanticism (it was probably too cold), but with wide-open senses and an eagerness to learn. He wrote a book and he educated America.

Today CNN publishes a thought-provoking story about “The Sixth Extinction” – “Many scientists say it’s abundantly clear that Earth is entering its sixth mass-extinction event, meaning three-quarters of all species could disappear in the coming centuries.”

The main agent and cause here is mankind, and mankind will also be the main victim. 

More to read here: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/11/world/sutter-mass-extinction-ceballos-study/index.html or here https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn

Between these two news snippets – the birth of Thoreau and the awakening to the species extinction – lie 200 years, which is for sure a long time, although short from the viewpoint of species development. But there lies also a gap in terms of “reality check”, outlook or perceptions of our common future that is nothing less than remarkable, if not scary. Only 200 years. Add to this that we are right on this day fed with video footage of the biggest chunk of ice ever breaking lose from the Antarctica ice cap, after the widening of a crack that is more than 120 miles long (that would be almost 200 km, or a bit less than the distance from Gothenburg to my Alma Mater in Lund). A person on the moon would be able to see the spectacle with the naked eye.

This all gives me the feeling that I have to hurry up now. I must go out and take a good look at Nature – and try to put things in perspective, and think over what I myself might do.  This is our mission in www.naturetrailsindonesia.com