Thomas Friedman, a famous author, wrote an editorial a few weeks ago and made me aware of some disappearing names. What do I mean by “disappearing names”? The Oxford Junior Dictionary, which focuses on seven- year-old children, is excluding words which the editors feel are no longer necessary. The words include otter, dandelion, nectar, chestnut, and cauliflower. They are being replaced by words such as voice-mail, blog, broadband, and cut and paste.
At the same time as the Oxford Junior Dictionary is cutting words out of the dictionary we are losing species at an alarming rate. In fact, the rate is about 1,000 times faster than if humans were not around. I just read that African elephant numbers went down by 30% from 2007 to 2014. I also know we are losing beautiful ocean coral and animals such as snow leopards, tigers, and the Vaquita porpoise.
When we lose animals, forests and our natural world, we lose a part of ourselves. We need nature in all of its forms in order to survive. Cures to many illnesses are found in the amphibian class. Oceans provide us with oxygen and a place to cool off and swim. Plus, they shelter precious dolphins and seals.
We burn forests to plant palm trees for palm oil. By doing so, we are rendering orangutans extinct and polluting our air.
A grandmother I know told me she has cried because she is afraid her grandchildren will never see and touch wild frogs. It is time to cry. I don’t want zoos to be the only place where we can see animals. Losing wild animals is like losing words. They signal the loss of our own species and diversity.
I don’t like words disappearing from the dictionary and I certainly don’t like seeing animals become extinct. What can you do besides write to the dictionary editors? You can make sure your children learn to appreciate our wild animals. And you can make sure to protect both, before it is too late.
This past week I had the honor to be the object of a child’s wonder and delight. I remember, I was sitting outside having lunch with a colleague. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a clear blue sky and the temperature was about 75 degrees. A group of four to five-year old children had just gone swimming and they passed our table. I saw them and asked, “how was your swim?”. A little Asian girl with big brown eyes looked straight at me and said, “Great!”. She then blurted, “Wow, you work there!”. I was not quite sure how she had figured out where I was working but I was not surprised.
I had the fortune of meeting Einstein, a baby bird last week. She or he, we don’t know which yet, fell about eight stories out of its nest and landed on the ground. Luckily, my colleague found the bird and rescued it. It is no bigger than my index finger and is living on a mix of egg and some high protein cat food. Einstein is so tiny that it has to be fed small pieces of food held with tweezers. Remember, the parents would normally drop food into the hungry bird’s mouth. If you look at the photo you can see the outline of its yellow mouth. Right now it looks like Einstein is a catbird but time will tell if that is the case.