The elephant in the room is human interference with Nature. First, we screw up some ecology or landscape, and second, we botch our attempt to “fix” it. Apparently, it’s built into our nature to change Nature. Strange, though, that in all those attempts to live harmoniously without overly exploiting some place, we compose and impose a new dissonance.
And now we know that the elephant in the room is also an elephant. In an attempt to enhance elephant populations and restore the natural setting of Malawi, the government moved hundreds of elephants into their wildlife preserve. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence followed: Tsetse flies and sleeping sickness.*
Wait! I was wrong. The elephant in the room is a forest. Although California has been the site of forest fires for as long as there have been forests, the presence of human habitation makes fires more newsworthy today than, say, 10,000 years ago. Maybe I should rephrase my “elephant in the room” here. The elephant is really the state of California’s effort to maintain a natural setting for more than 30 million people, many of them very, very rich and famous, rich enough to live in exclusive communes of multi-million-dollar homes. So, as the fires rage and tragically threaten communities, we see, in October, 2019, the governor of the state cast blame on the power company for not updating its power transmission system—even though the government refused to grant money for updating that the power company asked for years ago. But, it’s a complicated issue, right? Shouldn’t the power company simply charge its customers more for the power they desire? Yes, but who did the complicating? Californians seem to want electricity, even the more expensive “green” electricity, but all such power has to travel through wires and across landscapes with trees. The state decided that logging was evil or unnecessary or just plain harmful to Nature because a powerful cadre of environmentalists convinced the politicians to limit logging. The result, of course, was more forest to burn in fires started on purpose, by accident, by old wires felled by falling branches or trees,** or by Nature’s natural sparking mechanism, lightning.
The elephant in the room is definitely human interference. We cause a problem, and then, in solving that problem, we create another problem. The process occurs because we cannot, with a large population demanding all modern conveniences in every landscape and ecology, live harmoniously with Nature. Sustainability is largely a myth. The duet we want to sing with Nature is dissonant.
And the elephant in the room is scapegoating. During every fire season, when the seasonal Santa Ana winds flow down mountain slopes to fan fires in California, someone from the self-proclaimed elite class inevitably cries “climate change,” seemingly unaware of the natural cycle of high- and low-pressure systems that control weather in the American West. So, the rains will fall during the California winter, causing floods, and the droughts will persist in the California summer, causing conditions for fires. No amount of human “correcting” will change that natural cycle.
Tsetse flies will follow the elephants into Malawi. And around Lake Malawi, other flies will proliferate because the people there overfish the cichlid population, the fish that feed on those lake flies whose swarms look like dark clouds.*** Everything we do to sustain ourselves has a consequence. We exacerbate consequences when we selectively choose a part of Nature we want to use or save. Save the forests in California? Expect the fires. Save the elephants in Malawi? Expect the tsetse flies. Overfish to feed a population? Expect a negative consequence. Build a multi-million-dollar home in a wooded area with uncleared aging biomass and supply that home with electricity? Expect destruction.
For Malawi, apparently, the elephant in the room is actually an elephant.
*Jali, Kenneth. Malawi fights tsetse flies, disease after wildlife relocated. Phys.org. 30 Oct 2019.
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-malawi-tsetse-flies-disease-wildlife.html Accessed October 30, 2019.
**Or, as a Getty, California, official said in a press conference shown on Fox news: By “an act of God.” Apparently, for the devastating fire started when a tree branch fell onto a wire.
***YouTube has a video of the flies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs33k1b6N_A
Accessed October 30, 2019. The problem of overfishing cichlids in Lake Malawi is reported in
Masina, Lameck. Malawi Works to Contain Overfishing on Lake Malawi. Online at https://www.voanews.com/africa/malawi-works-contain-overfishing-lake-malawi Accessed October 30, 2019. The film does not make the connection between overfishing and the proliferating fly population, but that connection does, in fact, exist. Cichlids feed on flies.
And now we know that the elephant in the room is also an elephant. In an attempt to enhance elephant populations and restore the natural setting of Malawi, the government moved hundreds of elephants into their wildlife preserve. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence followed: Tsetse flies and sleeping sickness.*
Wait! I was wrong. The elephant in the room is a forest. Although California has been the site of forest fires for as long as there have been forests, the presence of human habitation makes fires more newsworthy today than, say, 10,000 years ago. Maybe I should rephrase my “elephant in the room” here. The elephant is really the state of California’s effort to maintain a natural setting for more than 30 million people, many of them very, very rich and famous, rich enough to live in exclusive communes of multi-million-dollar homes. So, as the fires rage and tragically threaten communities, we see, in October, 2019, the governor of the state cast blame on the power company for not updating its power transmission system—even though the government refused to grant money for updating that the power company asked for years ago. But, it’s a complicated issue, right? Shouldn’t the power company simply charge its customers more for the power they desire? Yes, but who did the complicating? Californians seem to want electricity, even the more expensive “green” electricity, but all such power has to travel through wires and across landscapes with trees. The state decided that logging was evil or unnecessary or just plain harmful to Nature because a powerful cadre of environmentalists convinced the politicians to limit logging. The result, of course, was more forest to burn in fires started on purpose, by accident, by old wires felled by falling branches or trees,** or by Nature’s natural sparking mechanism, lightning.
The elephant in the room is definitely human interference. We cause a problem, and then, in solving that problem, we create another problem. The process occurs because we cannot, with a large population demanding all modern conveniences in every landscape and ecology, live harmoniously with Nature. Sustainability is largely a myth. The duet we want to sing with Nature is dissonant.
And the elephant in the room is scapegoating. During every fire season, when the seasonal Santa Ana winds flow down mountain slopes to fan fires in California, someone from the self-proclaimed elite class inevitably cries “climate change,” seemingly unaware of the natural cycle of high- and low-pressure systems that control weather in the American West. So, the rains will fall during the California winter, causing floods, and the droughts will persist in the California summer, causing conditions for fires. No amount of human “correcting” will change that natural cycle.
Tsetse flies will follow the elephants into Malawi. And around Lake Malawi, other flies will proliferate because the people there overfish the cichlid population, the fish that feed on those lake flies whose swarms look like dark clouds.*** Everything we do to sustain ourselves has a consequence. We exacerbate consequences when we selectively choose a part of Nature we want to use or save. Save the forests in California? Expect the fires. Save the elephants in Malawi? Expect the tsetse flies. Overfish to feed a population? Expect a negative consequence. Build a multi-million-dollar home in a wooded area with uncleared aging biomass and supply that home with electricity? Expect destruction.
For Malawi, apparently, the elephant in the room is actually an elephant.
*Jali, Kenneth. Malawi fights tsetse flies, disease after wildlife relocated. Phys.org. 30 Oct 2019.
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-malawi-tsetse-flies-disease-wildlife.html Accessed October 30, 2019.
**Or, as a Getty, California, official said in a press conference shown on Fox news: By “an act of God.” Apparently, for the devastating fire started when a tree branch fell onto a wire.
***YouTube has a video of the flies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs33k1b6N_A
Accessed October 30, 2019. The problem of overfishing cichlids in Lake Malawi is reported in
Masina, Lameck. Malawi Works to Contain Overfishing on Lake Malawi. Online at https://www.voanews.com/africa/malawi-works-contain-overfishing-lake-malawi Accessed October 30, 2019. The film does not make the connection between overfishing and the proliferating fly population, but that connection does, in fact, exist. Cichlids feed on flies.
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