The Canary Syndrome and What It Augers For Us...

The Canary Factor and Well-Being


A few years back, we noticed a strange thing. Frogs were mutating. And many species were disappearing. Literally hundreds of species just disappeared. At the time, scientists were at a loss trying to explain what happened. Analogies were drawn between the frogs and the canaries in the miner’s lamps—they were the bellwethers of what might happen to the rest of us if we didn’t pay attention.

Well, what we discovered was that pollution was the likely culprit. The frogs very vulnerable to sleight changes to what was in the environment were reflecting what we were doing to our land and sea. For the most part, major changes were connected to pollutants and effluents from local industrial plants.

Well, our reaction, to make a long story short, was to do ignore the threat and continue our slide backwards. We appointed officials to EPA who did not have the best interests of the environment in mind; we pushed back OSHA regulations that would have prevented return of effluents to the environment. We went back to using coal, despite the innovations in the coal industry that we later discovered still produced pollution, and increased levels of pollution that included heavy metals, CO2 and mercury.
We meddled with synthetics and hybrids. We virtually ignored the warning of the frogs.

The next thing we know is that the numbers of Monarchs had changed dramatically.
Thousands and thousand of Monarch butterflies did not make their annual trip to Mexico.

What happened?

As it turned out, the Monarch’s had made the mistake of stopping on their way at Midwestern farms where they were growing hybrid varieties of corn. Well, as it turns out, the hybrids and the Monarchs did not get along. And the Monarchs were dying in record numbers. By the way, the owners of the seed did nothing; hybrid corn is still being grown.

What next?

Today, beehive owners have discovered that their bees have left the hive.

Since that is the first time something like that’s happened, the hive owners are worried.

It is suspected that the bees are leaving in the morning and something is happening to them and they are freezing and dying in the fields.

What would happen if the bees died off?

Many crops are dependent on the bees from almonds to blueberries; one out of every three foods we eat are typically dependent on being pollinated by the bee population; therefore, if the bees disappear, we shall all be affected.

And where do we go from here?

An intelligent, sensitive responsive people who know that their ultimate well-being is predicated on Nature have to ask themselves if the loss of frogs, a bellwether species, Monarch butterflies and bees who are responsible for the growth of one out of three crops, signals something we should be concerned about. It is unthinkable that we persist in doing little to reverse the existing abuses to the environment that have such a devasating affect on species.

But overall, aside from those who are traditionally inclined to be supporters of the environment and protectors of the species, there seems to be little interest in becoming engaged—even when your own future may be at stake.

Why? Why would we allow the death of the environment for the sake of profit?

It is a perplexing question and with our well-being at risk, it demands thoughtful consideration , and at the very least, a satisfactory answer.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon