October 8, 2021

2021 Bioblitz @ Century Park

“Humans are terrible for the environment.” — Rainn Wilson as Dwight K. Schrute in The Office

I was first introduced to iNaturalist by my brother, who is an avid bird-watcher and an avid “iNaturalist,” during our trip to Tasmania. And immediately I was intrigued by the premise of this application / website, I was intrigued by the idea of someone helping me identify what I see in nature. I myself, unlike my brother, do not have an encyclopedic knowledge and do not spend the time remembering the field guide to everyplace I go. So immediately I was thus intrigued that people who do have encyclopedic knowledge or do spend their free time remembering field guide, people whom I have the upmost respect for but still don’t understand, even though I used to live with one, can help me identify what I see. Even more intriguing is Seek and its premise, unlike iNaturalist, I never used Seek as I never saw the value of having that app, but after learning the capabilities of that app I am astonished by the capability of it. That I can now just hold thy camera to something, and databases will be searched allowing me to know what I am looking at. Once again, I do not have encyclopedic knowledge, but my phone do. And in the cases that my phone is wrong, which has happened before, real people help. This greatly intrigued me, but not enough, it seemed, to make me as attached to the website as other people. I found it tedious to put every image I took through this, so I only occasionally did so. Often if I have spare time or if I took a photo that I found particularly interesting, but I digress.

Ever since the pandemic started, and I stopped traveling, I stopped using iNaturalist. During that time, I primarily stayed in my apartment and even when I did go outside occasionally, it was only in my apartment complex. And I found it strange to post iNaturalist of things I just see day-to-day. And so I went on a hiatus for a few months during the pandemic when it came to iNaturalist. Until the 2021 Bioblitz where we went to Century Park, a park that holds a special place in my heart as it was where I went when I was young, as it is this spot of greenery in this urbanized city.

It seems as if the fast urbanization that is happening to the world comes with a price tag, a price tag that we shouldn’t dare to pay ——— bio-diversity. The amount of metropolitan areas in the world is ever-increasing, and this comes with an incomprehensible amount of benefits. We are now richer than we have ever been, and quality of life have never been as good. Though, it is important to note that there are still people suffering and living under systems of oppression, like poverty and systemic racism, but I digress. It can not be denied that with the increase in the amount of metropolitan areas and with the fast urbanization around the world, that our life is getting better. But strings are attached, strings are always attached. And in this case, the strings are attached to bio-diversity and the destruction of the environment, not ours, not theirs but the, it doesn’t belong to us nor them, but belongs to no one. And because that is the case, it is our duty not to damage what we have stumbled across. We are undoubtedly the most powerful species to ever set foot on this magnificent planet. Though our individual actions hardly play a role in the affairs of our environment, contrary to many tell you (that is actually something that was came up by, and this is not a joke, BP, the oil company that continues to destroy the environment). But us as a collective entity and us as a collective “hive” have real tangible impact on this blue planet that we are only renting. Just like we do not wish to have people “trash” a place that we own, the same thing applies to Earth. I am often not a fan of personification, as I find it strange to apply human emotions to non-human objects, personification really do work here, we really do need to imagine Earth as mother earth, as it is not only us, but millions of other organisms that both literally and figuratively outweigh us on so many different levels.

We can not and we shall not act only based on benefits that we gain. There’s always this comparison of economic stimulus / gain or environmental protection because to a certain degree this is a conversation in which both sides are valid, but only to a certain degree. In my opinion, short term economic gains shall always be put behind long term environmental protection. Without long term environmental protection we would not be here in a few hundred years, maybe even a few decades, in that time, if we go down the path of a short-term economic gain in which we follow the decisions of the multi-national multi-billion dollar cooperations, the environment would be destroyed, and in that case, there would be no world in which the economic stimuli could benefit anyone. It comes down only, and only, to a debate within a margin, a margin that in my opinion should heavily favour environmentalism and the protection of the environment through programmes and policies such as the Green New Deal. Economic boosts can come in and only come in when we have a sustainable way of life so people can benefit from the gains and so the gains have a place where it could take place, or else, the gains are utterly and completely useless.

We are now at an intersection regarding urban planning, and that is fast and rapid urbanization or the protection of our environment and the maintaining of biodiversity. The 2 can not completely co-exist. Nanhui (南汇) used to be this place where bird-watchers went every year as it is a pass for migrating birds, yet in recent years, the building of malls and hotels, the destruction of natural habitat, and the construction of Tesla’s new Gigafactory. I’ve seen the destruction of Nanhui first hand, I’ve been there along with my family for an incredibly long time, and I could see the destruction on the environment, I could see the destruction of habitats, and I can see the dwindling number of birds. But Shanghai is by no mean a city that is “bad” regarding urbanization v.s. biodiversity, Shanghai’s overall greening has been better than any other city I have seen, walking down a street in Shanghai, you see tree and you see plants, this doesn’t happen in most other countries. And in Shanghai, something else that should be noted is that the level of pollution has drastically decreased in the past few years, all of these things I have also experienced and can personally attest to. This might just be the crossroad of the century. With ever-growing metropolitan area and fast urbanization causing massive economic benefits and boosts, what should we do about biodiversity? And I think that the answer here is we should do a lot about biodiversity.

“To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. We must rewild the world!” — David Attenborough, Man with Amazing Voice (Voice Over actor for BBC)

Biodiversity is what allows me to be here right now and what allows our species to thrive, if we make extinct other creatures which we have already done to numerous species in the name of so called biodiversity. The only reason I’m going on this entire spiel is because I think this is an important issue that we have to solve. We are not the only species or important species on this planet, to think that is being narcissistic and self-important, we are sharing this planet with other organisms, and this is a relationship in which if they die, we die. So if we are slightly self important, which is the nature of our species, just remember that the death and the extinctions of all the other species will in the end harm us and will in the end cause our own demise, so to kill the environment, to kill biodiversity is in reality just us killing the future of our species. I don’t know what all of us care about, but I’m pretty sure that we care about the future and would hope that the planet that we leave for future generations is better than the ones we got. This concerns with each and everyone of else, and this concerns with the fast urbanization that is happening around the world. It is absolutely true that urbanization helps us, but not in the long run, absolutely not, urbanization with complete and utter disregard for biodiversity would only harm us in the long run. And although it seems like a great idea, urbanization will never properly coexist with proper biodiversity, at least not in our current world, to make that happen will require us to make structural and ideological and systemic changes that we are not capable of making. What is there to talk about when it comes to economic boosts and the riches 1% getting richer if there won’t be people left to benefit from it. Even in the best case scenario, if everyone is alleviated from poverty, what is there to care if there won’t be another generation to benefit from the alleviation from all poverty which in itself is nothing but a utopian idea that also require structural and ideological and systemic changes that we are not capable of making, at least today. This hopefully can change, we hopefully can make sustainable urbanization with proper attention to biodiversity, which I do see around the world, but at this point in time, not enough are properly regarding it. And I will always remain hopeful, hopeful that change is coming, I will always remain hopeful, that we would pay attention to environmentalism, and this is happening more and more, but my generation and other people only have this much patience, which is slowly running out. We would wish for a better economy, but only if future generations are there to benefit it, only if animals are there, only if plants are there, only if we aren’t the only species left on this planet, watching our own doomsday happen before us and due to us. I find it hypocritical that as Tesla boasts about saving the environment, it is literally wiping Nanhui of any signs of biodiversity.

We really do need to start caring about biodiversity and the environment, we really do. Often, politicians exaggerate things so that you will vote for them, or frighten you so that you will vote for them. But this, this is the truth, climate change is real and will impact us, no matter if you like it or not. As the saying goes, facts don’t care about how you feel. So we need to act upon these facts and stop being complacent in the face of possibly the biggest issue we have ever face. This will not just impact us, but those around us, the animals, and those who will come after us, and let us just unite for once, for their sake, for the safety and for the prosperity of future generations.

I grew up in a city, I grew up in the second largest metropolitan area in the world, somewhere that is the opposite of nature, one can even say that a city is the absence of nature. I grew up here, but I travel a lot, the purpose of traveling, at least in my opinion, is to gain new insights on the world beyond where you were born and where you were live. After traveling to Southern Africa (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) and Costa Rica, I gained a new appreciation of this fascinating and wonderful planet we live on. And I gained a new appreciation of what is the world around us, what is nature around us, what is the animals and plants around us. I now know how valuable they are to us and how if we keep on abusing them for wealth and for capital, it will in the end bite us. We are now living in the age of economic growth with booming economies all around the world, but as we get more money, we are also more focused on material wealth, or in other words, we are getting more and more materialistic. That is to say that we are focused on monetary gains and tangible showings on our success. But this can’t be the case, not at all, a more and more materialistic world means more and more negligence regarding the environment. We need to grow up in 2 ways, one is regarding the rejection of science, the other is regarding this idea of a world in which environmental sustainability and economic growth can coexist, it can’t. More than 2,000 words later, the main takeaway I get is this appreciation of nature, and this crossroad, one where we have to go down one path, sure there’s leeway, but only to a certain degree, and we have to go down one, and in my opinion, one is a lot better than the other, we can’t go down both, we can only go down one. And just to be absolutely and perfectly clear here, I’m not suggesting a complete and only focus on environmentalism and the environment, but I do believe that it is in our best interest and the future generation’s best interest if we focus on that more than we focus on the economy.

This is the environment we’re talking about here, something that we only have one of. As I have repeated numerous times, we are not the sole owner of this planet and if we go down the path of short term economic benefits, if the planet dies, if the future generation dies, if our species perishes from this Blue Marble, who is there to reap from the economic boosts. In my opinion, to go down that path is selfish, and it will end up helping the wealthy rather than the improvised.

I am hopeful, and I will always be hopeful, but my patience only lasts so long.

“Despite the chaos and confusion of our world, I see winds of hope blowing around the globe.” — António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations

I see massive progress in the “greening” of cities like the one I live in, and I love it, I love walking down a street, though it is not nature, I feel closer. But massive progress could still be made. We shall and we can never be complacent, complacency here is unacceptable, complacency here is complacency regarding the future of our species, the future of our planet. We can not stop, we have to continue, with the push by so many countries including the one I’m living in to carbon neutral and even some to be carbon negative (though not many have accomplished carbon negative, only 1, for that matter), I see hope, I see hope in our future. Though these are promises from politicians, who we know make empty-promises, I am still hopeful, I am hopeful that in these moments of desperation, that logic and reasoning will prevail. I see progress, tons of it, which shall go on, which shall never extinguish even at the toughest winds, we shall prevail, but in order for that, we shall unite, something that we have not done, but I hope we will as we face a generational problem. We must unite, we must prevail, we must conquer climate change for a sustainable world for us and for future generations, a world where they can stimulate, where they can improve the economy, or at least, where they can live.

The world is so beautiful, and I want it to be more beautiful when we hand it off to the future generations, this should be our biggest priority, ahead of those that multi-national cooperations and ahead of that of the oil tycoons and magnate. We need to prioritize the future, not the present, but the future.

“If we're gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.” — Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park

“The planet’s on … fire … This is an actual crisis.” — Bill Nye the Science Guy in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Powerful quotes here go on and on, by people like Mark Ruffalo, Emmanuel Macron, Arnold Schwarzenegger (which referenced sci-fi chef’s kiss), AOC, Elizabeth May (I’m Canadian), Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a whole host of other notable people. The point here is that even the wealthy, even the influential are on board with swift changes when it comes to the environment.

We need to seriously grow up, which does sounds silly coming from a literal child, but this isn’t Minecraft or Fortnite or whatever the kids play these days, this is real life. Where we can’t simply command or control z and undo our actions and say oopsie daisy, this a world where our actions have tangible impacts, where we are responsible not only for our life, but the life of animals, plants, and those who will live after us. We can’t neglect the effort that those before us made, we can’t just give up after what they have fought for, we can’t just throw in the towel, we have to keep fighting, even at the face of seemingly unwinnable battles, that is disrespecting their efforts, and we can’t just admit defeat, that would be denying people a future and a chance to live. In this modern world, if we can’t guarantee most rights, at least allow the future generations a chance to live.

There are so much things I can write about, the denial of science, politics getting in place of actual concrete actions, or in other words, overly politicised problems, etc., but this is all I have time for and mostly, I am tired, both towards the problem, and at typing this out.

“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.” — Barack Obama, former President of the United States of America

Posted on October 8, 2021 12:16 PM by monalisainthebluejayshat monalisainthebluejayshat | 1 comment | Leave a comment

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