By Mark McGee
My Take
In the movie “Soylent Green” actor Edgar G. Robinson’s character, Sol Roth, goes to a center designed for those who want to die.
Roth remembered a time where waters teemed with fish, wildlife roamed the fields and trees and flowers blossomed.
As he dies, Roth is surrounded by videos of these images. Charlton Heston, who plays a detective named Thorn, tracks Robinson down. Thorn has always lived in a world where natural resources are not only scarce, but in most cases non-existent. He gets to the center in time to watch the video with Roth.
“How could I ever imagined?” Thorn asks in astonished disbelief as he watches the scenes of a world filled with various animals, fresh water, and lush plant life.
Changes are subtle and take place over generations. What “Soylent Green” depicts didn’t happen overnight. I’m not sure I know how I feel about global warming, but I noticed one change this summer.
In all the hustle and bustle of summer did you take time to look at the night sky? Did you ask the question, “Where did all the fireflies go?”
One of my favorite memories of my daughter when she was young was running around our front yard catching fireflies in a jar. We poked holes in the lid so they wouldn’t die and would marvel at how they could light up the jar before we let them loose.
I never thought about the possibility that the only way my daughter might tell her children in the future about that experience would be through stories and not the actual act of catching fireflies.
The ways things are going that could very well be the case.
Based on where you lived in Middle Tennessee this summer fireflies were almost non-existent or in abundance.
There weren’t many in my yard. Many studies are indicating a depletion of various forms of fireflies to the point of extinction across the country.
Margaret Renkl, writes in a “New York Times” opinion piece, “Light pollution interrupts the flash patterns that fireflies use to communicate, making it more difficult to find a mate and evade predators. Development means the loss of the leaf litter and fallen branches and high grass that make up firefly habitat.”
Pesticides are also an issue as well, especially those used on lawns.
It is sad. Fireflies are a signal of summer. They are arriving later and fewer of them are filling the air.
It is hard not to be nostalgic about certain things. And one saying is always true, “You don’t really miss something until it is gone.”
