From Parklane Landscapes
Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) is what happens when we forget how vibrant the natural world used to be. Each generation grows up with a more depleted environment and calls it "normal," simply because it's all they've ever known.
Think about walking through a park and thinking, "This seems healthy." But maybe 30 years ago that same park had twice as many birds, wildflowers, or insects. If you never saw that version, you don't feel the loss - and that quiet forgetting becomes the new baseline. Over time, we start accepting degraded ecosystems as normal.
Researchers warn that this shift lowers our expectations, increases our tolerance for decline, and reduces our urgency to protect what's left.
What helps:
Intergenerational conversations that reconnect us with what nature used to be.
Direct experiences with nature that sharpen our awareness of change.
Remembering (knowing) the past is the first step to restoring the future.
Not a sponsor, I don't think it's an AI graphic, and I think it has something important to say. Plus it does have an owl. We can't save our animals if we don't save them the spaces they need to thrive.
I just want bees back. My town used to have bees everywhere you looked and you could plant anything and you would get to harvest it later. Now you are lucky if you get a couple fruit/veggies per plant. Its not just bees either. The standard 'plant this to attract pollenators' plants don't help if there are no pollenators to attract.
I mean, there's other solutions
I just happened to step outside late one night as the mosquito truck rolled by, with a dopey sounding single stroke engine pumping out a cloud of spray.
It works, we don't have any skeeters in our neighborhood. We also don't have lightning bugs, labybugs, dragonflies, butterflies, bees, or most other flying critters. We do have wasps, though. Those bastards are indestructible apparently.
I was in Queens, NY, in THE city, no woods, pastures, or even parks around anywhere nearby, and yet there were lightning bugs everywhere we went at night. We can't have them where we live next to nature, but they have them in the city, because they don't spray clouds of POISON down their streets, "for the bugs."
I mentioned this to group of residents recently, and we all agreed said that we'd be happy to trade a few skeeter bites each summer if it meant we could see lightning bugs and butterflies again.
We used to get crop dust planes every so often in the nearby fields. I was biking by yesterday and keep having to brush off ladybugs (at 30kph) progress!
Bring it up at a City Council meeting or something if possible. Local politics is one of the few areas in America where democracy isn't entirely dead yet.
Also when it comes specifically to lightning bugs / lanternflies / fireflies (plus many other species), light pollution also has a significant negative effect on them. Clouds of poison sure aren't doing them any favor either though.
I was going to speak to the HOA, but it turns out its a county thing, and HOA couldn't stop it if they wanted to. I could try to go to the county commissioners, but it's highly MAGA, so if they figure out we're concerned about it, especially if they think we're concerned about the environment, they'll probably double the coverage.
laughs in southern US
...yeah my condolences
what the actual fuck? fumigating... outside? who approved this. That's one of the most idiotic ideas I've heard.
There have been skeeter trucks for decades, all my life. In areas with lots of skeeters, there is a fear of skeeter spread blood diseases, so control is considered imperative.
I remember the fireflies in late summer outside the cities. They are nowhere to be found anymore, unfortunately.
When I was a kid we'd visit my great grandparents in Speedway, IN, right down the street from the Indy 500. There were so many fireflies even us uncoordinated kids could fill a jar catching them by hand.
So you're saying my brown thumb is not totally my fault??? 😉
The wife is terrified of bees, but I get excited to see them anymore. Especially the weird local bees.
I tried to plant some bee and butterfly friendly plants but they all got cooked in a heat wave last year or something.
Nope! It could also be the fault of J(erk) B(ee) V(ance) so don't forget to orange that sumbitch too
We also say that the bugs and animals all only ever came by to see grandpa and now that he's gone they have no reason to visit.
But yeah heat waves have been really awful. I'm already dying and its not even the hot season. Soon all we'll have that can handle the heat is cockroaches and we'll have to selectively breed them to turn them into pollenators but actually that would be horrendous please no.
🥲
I just got the email today about electricity prices jumping another 30% right in time for summer. We've already had 90 degree (32C) days, so I am not looking forward to this. I am one of those always hot people as it is. 🥵
Weird question, not a dig, in Southern France they have metal or wooden shutters on all the windows. Is that something they have in the south of US? It makes a massive difference and takes zero electricity, then you just need an AC in your bedroom to go to sleep. Probably doesn't work as well on wood houses that trap the heat and heat quickly though?