The story goes that John Lennon wrote the words to the weirdest song ever, “I am the Walrus,” in protest to the way everyone was trying to attach meaning to Beatle lyrics back in the day. I found meaning in this intentionally meaningless song, when I heard about the fate of Freya the walrus in Norway. She had to be put to death when warnings of staying away from her went unheeded. I am the walrus, and I am crying because we keep treating wildlife with the kind of curiosity that often ends up killing them. Could this 1300-pound walrus have been relocated? Perhaps, but only with great expense and trauma with no promise she would have survived the move.
It reminded me of the efforts I was involved in for decades as a nature center director to get people to leave wildlife alone. They fed deer, ‘rescued’ rabbits, birds, and squirrels because they had a twisted relationship with nature. I have always admired and shared the love of wildlife that these actions represented at their core. But like so many human actions, they represented tunnel vision about the long-term results of their actions. Save an English sparrow and watch it destroy bluebird nests. Rescue a goldfish by releasing it in a marsh and witness the annihilation of the whole ecosystem. The most vivid story I can remember involves the forbidden hand feeding of Canada geese which got so tame they lost their natural fear of people paving the way for teenage boys to hand spear them to death one morbid afternoon. Those families who brought leftover bread to hand feed these beautiful birds had no thought as to the way the bread effected their health or how it artificially raises their numbers. They certainly never considered that by feeding the geese they were sentencing them to death. The lesson here is that we must stop acting in the way that feels good in the moment without considering the long-term result.
Just about everything about the state of our environment fits into the narrative that short term desires often result in long tern ecological pain. It feels good to buy something brand new and not consider the resources it took to make it or the overflowing landfills where it will end up. When you are thirsty a drink that comes in a ubiquitous plastic one-use bottle is refreshing. Few think that 1,000 people are doing that every second in the US resulting in 500 billion bottles that will have a heinous second life polluting our land, ground water and oceans.
It seems fair in the moment to put out a welcome mat on our southern border and to those around the world in need of a better life or just more opportunities today, but the impact of an increased demand for housing, jobs, and healthcare on our already stressed country is as delusional as it is ignored. Sharing one’s wealth is admirable but there is no wealth to be found in today’s US. Our rivers are running dry, our health care systems are failing, and the open space that serves wildlife and the water cycle is being gobbled up by our continued population pressures. The figures are astonishing. America lost 17,800 square miles of open space to population pressure and its resulting development between 2002 and 2017, according to a study released by NumbersUSA.
But my experience is that figures do not matter when we refuse to adopt an ethic of long-term thinking. We must open our eyes to the misery our short term, feel-good thinking and behavior is causing and will create in the future. Feeding white tail deer will increase their population so that they will be hit by cars and require them to be culled, a kind word for killing. Welcoming more Americans to our bare table is not an act of kindness when it will result in more misery and suffering in the long run. It is analogous to those who enjoyed photographing Freya, the popular walrus which condemned her to death. It all makes about as much sense as the lyrics, “I am the egg man, I am the egg man, they are the egg men, I am the walrus Goo goo g'joob.”