Bridget Mazzini (pictured above), who retired from UCSF after 30 years as a nurse caring for people with blood cancers, is back with a 528-word letter sharing personal encounters with the natural world, and encouragement and resources to heal the planet.
You don’t know what you’ve got until it's almost gone.
A wild and diverse natural world is key to our wellbeing, but a growing ecological crisis threatens our planet and our health; the accelerated rate of species extinction and biodiversity loss.
Critters that are crucial to the global food web are dying off at an alarming rate.
Consider the birds: We have lost 2.9 billion birds in North America since 1970. (Science.org) That’s roughly 1 in 4 birds gone. Like the canary in the coal mine, the birds are sending us a distress signal.
Our planet needs healing. While it is late, it isn’t too late. Join me in resolving to restore the wild in 2023. Making a difference is easier than you think.
Townsend's Warbler perched on a branch. Credit: Tim Shore.
The unofficial bird count on our tiny lot north of San Francisco is heartening. The birdbaths my husband built from unused construction material apparently sent a signal that our home is an interim rest spot for the fall migration. At our visitor peak, we had 12 birds reveling in the bath together and many more waiting in the wings (pun intended).
Since the first teeny, yellow bird arrived, thoroughly charming us, we kept the baths full, especially during the height of summer heat and water rationing, so that our visitors could cool themselves off. In gratitude, I like to think, they rewarded us with their evening performances: splashing and fluttering in the baths with us watching just a few feet away. In the morning they returned to feed, pecking at our ungroomed yard under the oak tree. It seems we were hosts to an accidental bird sanctuary.
I don’t honestly know if we saved a single bird (except the one that flew into our house and my husband tenderly shepherded back out). But enjoying the birds connected me to their lives and invigorated my resolve to act. There is still something I can do to protect them and protect us. By teaming up with one of the strategic organizations working to regenerate biodiversity and preserve wilderness spaces, I can be one building block in a greater scheme to keep our planet wild, diverse, and healthy.
You can help too. This New Year's, resolve to explore and adopt a group that aligns with your affinity for the wild, whether that is on the land, in the air, or in the water. Here are four groups that want your help:
- 3 Billion Birds: Learn more about the decline of breeding birds and what you can do to help bring them back.
- Nature Needs Half: Partners with the Wild Foundation pushing for the protection of 50% of wild areas by 2030.
- Mission Blue: If the ocean is your love, follow that passion. Mission Blue is working to build a global network of marine protected areas known as Hope Spots.
- Homegrown National Park Plant natives and be part of the movement to restore biodiversity starting in your front yard.
For 2023, keep the planet at the heart of your resolve. If you become part of the grassroots movement to regenerate biodiversity, your impact will take flight.
I know. A little yellow bird told me.
See more sustainability tips by Mazzini on the Green Change website, where she is a contributing content editor.
