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I grew up in the suburbs of native California. Thousands of songbirds used to sing and chirp outside my bedroom window. An abundance of butterflies and insects used to be everywhere. Pollywogs, toads, snakes, and lizards were plentifully possible to play with when I was a child. I even played with caterpillars and beetles. I'd watch rabbits and all kinds of smaller and larger animals forage outside my bedroom window. In the surrounding native wild lands of my community I'd see nature too. Even at night under millions of stars I could see my neighborhood was filled with all sorts of nocturnal creatures as well. Bats and owls flew in my childhood's memories everywhere.
Today that same suburban neighborhood I grew up in as a child sits mostly silent and empty, except for the sometimes droning monotonous sound one hears of leaf blower machines and lawnmowers. It's amazing to see a flock of birds in my neighborhood anymore. It's even more amazing to find a native insect.
At night now when I peer into the sky I don't even see the same heavens I witnessed as a child. Light pollution causes the sky in my neighborhood to permanently glow at night. Even the stars feel sadly gone.
As a child I would often make myself some sandwiches, fill a canteen with water, and stuff everything into my rucksack. I'd be on my way. I'd discover the wild lands of my community. I'd walk along the river and forests and meadows observing and discovering things endlessly as I roamed.
My childhood became definitely a contrast from what many local children live today. Back when I was young children often actually played in and explored the outdoors. I wasn't even afraid of the outdoors or the dark. I was heavily involved in Scouting. I could and can survive comfortably in the wilderness.
Many kids today really are afraid of nature. Children fear harmless snakes, beetles, frogs, fish, even earthworms. I had a girl fall apart sobbing a few months back when I showed her a harmless toad. She thought the toad I held might bite her. That's how ignorant and naive many local children are today about the California outdoors. Toads attacking children?
California is dying. The world is dying. A recent study by the World Wildlife Federation determined 60% of the earth's population of wildlife has already been wiped out--and that is only measured in the past 45 years. People just don't realize it. People still walk to a river near my home. They actually think they are in nature. Today the nearby meadows are filled with invasive species, plants and animals that once never existed in California. The local variety of flora and fauna is decimated. The local waterways are destroyed and drained, cemented over in places. Now even the native local creeks in my former natural community I played and swam in as a child are bulldozed and covered over.
Where I grew up in my California neighborhood there used to be vernal ponds, beautiful shallow pockets of water teaming with incredible amounts of wildlife. Nearby adjacent meadows used to be covered with beautiful swaths of native flowers and plants. Native trees were even removed, replaced today with trees that sometimes normally never occur naturally in the USA. Homes and yards often don't even contain a single plant native to California. There are huge freeways and roads built everywhere to move cars. That part of my childhood is paved over and gone too.
Yesterday I read how 95% of the marshes of California are gone. I think it's closer to 98.5% in my opinion. Most people have no idea that at one time San Francisco Bay was once almost overflowing with fish and other aquatic life. Large fleets of fishing vessels would net and scoop up the natural riches and fill their ships' hulls with an abundance of wild fish,shrimp, native mussels, and other catches. But not anymore.
Most people have no ideas what California was even a century ago. Only four percent of California's majestic redwood trees remain. The oldest tree in the world, a bristlecone pine, a tree I once coincidentally happened to see in the Sierras when it was alive, was chainsawed down. One-third of San Francisco Bay has been filled in with miner's hydraulic mining silt, dirt, rock, trash, discarded cars, and even old ships by people over the past centuries. Everything in California now is about conquering nature, trying to create jobs, and taking care of the needs of people. The planet suffers.
Most of my neighbors really don't care about nature. They say they do, but it's just feel-good emotions. They have their computers and flatscreen televisions to view nature now. Some sit down and watch nature shows on tv, really believing they are understanding the outdoors or the elements of natural living things. The closest most of my neighbors get to nature nowadays is feeding their cat or petting their dog.
I am just glad I had my childhood. I once lived in splendor with nature. Now that childhood I once experienced nestled in and among the bounteous abundance of wildlife is destroyed and gone. The life in the beauty and richness of God's creation I lived as a child has now been permanently irrevocably changed forever.
I am truly fortunate. I can remember playing in a field behind my school with classmates as giant clouds of all kinds of butterflies flew around us. It was magical. I had a childhood future generations of children will never experience to enjoy.
For children of tomorrow, I feel sorry for you. You will never know what you lost.
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