Environmental Esotericism

It's been a long time since I wrote something here, and to be honest part of it's because I have a Substack account now and I'm doing most of my nonfiction writing there. But I want to keep up my presence here, even if Tumblr isn't as active now as it was when I first joined, so here goes-- the latest Ecosystem Spotlight.

The Falklands are a chain of islands in the extreme south Atlantic, historically claimed by both Argentina and Britain. They are, in fact, the southernmost landmass with a significant terrestrial ecosystem, and are considered to be part of the Antarctic biogeographic region by scientists. However, their ecosystem is very sparse. There are no trees, and no reptiles, amphibians, or native land mammals.

Birds, on the other hand, are abundant and diverse. Colonies of penguins, petrels, and cormorants live on the islands' shores, while kelp geese graze on the tussock grass further inland. The apex predators of the islands are also birds-- namely giant petrels, skuas, and caracaras. The most endangered bird on the islands, however, is the Cobb's wren, which is currently restricted to small offshore islands where rats and other invasive mammals are not present.

Aside from visits by native Patagonian people thousands of years ago, the first settlers on the Falklands arrived in the late 18th century. The islands quickly became a way-station for whalers and seal-hunters, with goats and sheep being introduced as sources of food. These, together with rats from whaling ships, have badly affected the islands' ecology, destroying the vegetation and the nesting grounds of seabirds. However, compared to other islands such as Hawaii and New Zealand, the Falklands have suffered relatively few extinctions (the Warrah, a wolf-like canine believed to have been introduced by humans thousands of years ago, is one of the few exceptions), and their future will hopefully remain secure.

Back in the day, when broadcast TV was the primary mass medium people relied on for their news and entertainment, it was easy to get a lot of people's attention through a single well-promoted TV special. And in 1990, on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, the ABC network decided to do exactly that. The Earth Day Special is not exactly thick on plot. The story, such as it is, revolves around Mother Nature-- represented as a woman with flowers for hair and a dress displaying a map of the world-- suddenly falling out of the sky, deathly ill. She is rushed to the hospital, where she is placed under the care of Doogie Howser. Meanwhile, various guest characters, ranging from the Golden Girls to the cast of Cheers to Bugs Bunny to Kermit the Frog, discuss what is making her sick and what can be done about it. If this setup sounds familiar, it should. It's more or less a retread of the same year's infamous Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue, an anti-drug PSA featuring various popular cartoon characters lecturing a boy about the dangers of drugs.

Oil's Whale Ends Whale?

When is an endangered species allowed to go extinct? It's a tricky decision, and one we don't make lightly. In theory, all endangered species in the United States are protected under the Endangered Species Act, and while special exemptions may be sought, this rarely happens. But yesterday, President Donald Trump did something completely unprecedented, and declared the entire Gulf of Mexico-- sorry, I mean Gulf of America-- exempt from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The actual decision to do this was made by the heads of six government departments known as the "God Squad", because it is within their power to decide whether a species lives or dies. If the federal government wants to move forward with a project that will threaten an endangered species, the "God Squad" must decide whether to give them permission. And this time, they give more permission than ever.

While this action will affect all wildlife in the Gulf, the species in the most danger is the Gulf of Mexico whale, a smaller relative of the blue whale and the fin whale. As few as 40 of these whales are believed to exist, and nearly a quarter of the population was killed off in 2010 by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Gulf of Mexico whale was seemingly never common, and it has an unusual lifestyle for a baleen whale. Instead of filter-feeding on swarms of krill in open water, it is a bottom-feeder, making deep dives to forage for abyssal crustaceans and fish. This unfortunately makes it exceptionally prone to taking up pollutants from oil drilling, which build up in deep-sea animals.

BEWARE! SPOILERS BELOW!

I normally don't do Eco-Tainment reviews for movies until they're out of theaters, because I want my readers (however many there are) to experience them the same way I did. But because it's been so long since I did one of these reviews, I'm going to do one for Hoppers, the latest Pixar movie. Spoilers will be marked, but skip this review if you don't want to read them.

Hoppers focuses on a college student named Mabel Tanaka, who has been unsuccessfully protesting to have a highway that threatens the local beaver pond cancelled. During one of her vigils, she stumbles upon a project by her biology professor-- a robotic beaver that humans can transfer their minds into, allowing them to experience nature as an animal. Impulsively, Mabel decides to try this "hopping" technology herself, and ends up in the body of a mechanical beaver.

After integrating herself into beaver society, she is introduced to the Animal Council, the leaders of all the major animal groups. She rallies them to fight off the mayor of her city and stop his plan to build the highway, but the greedy Insect King wishes to destroy all of humanity in revenge for the death of his fellow insects. Realizing their revenge against humans has gotten out of hands, Mabel and the animals decide to stop him, while still convincing the Mayor to change his mind.