Well.  Well, well.  That Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a wise fella…. and said some big things.  Like…“A person hears only what they understand.”  Oh how true.  I wonder how many people will hear this next one…. AGAIN?  Maybe you should grab some breakfast… before you did in to all of this.

First… here is something to chew on while you are enjoying a bowl of Rice Krispies this morning.  A group of international researchers claim that the Earth is entering a sixth mass extinction.  How’s that for snap, crackle and pop.

Okay.  Forget the Rice Krispies.  Have your English Muffin.  The research report goes on to say….that the demise of its species is about 100 times faster than the average rate of previous extinctions.  Whoops.  Toast.

Better put some butter on that toast… because that is what we are….

The major drivers of the sixth mass extinction are mainly triggered by human touch: land farming, logging and settlement, introduction of invasive species, increased carbon emissions and man-made toxins.

It appears we humans are a messy bunch, wouldn’t you say?

The Study was conducted by Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford  Woods Institute for the Environment… and colleagues, of course. I guess this is a pretty big environmental entity, founded by the Woods’ Family at Stanford.

I don’t know what the heck a Bing Professor is though.  The only Bings I know are Bing Cherry, Bing Crosby, and Bahda-Bing-Bahda-Boo.

ANYWAY.  According to Ehrilich and his gang of merry men….   to date, 41 percent of amphibian species and 26 percent of mammals are on the list of threatened and endangered species.   Pass the bacon.  And the frog legs.  That’s a lot.

Even if you combine the number of species lost from earlier mass extinctions, which includes up to 280 species, the current period is still way above that number. Earth lost 396 species between 1900 and 2010, according to the International Union of Conservation of Nature.

Again, I say.  That’s a lot.

I don’t really have an end point, or a story, about any of this.  I just keep thinking back to the profound words of wisdom given to us by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe…. in which he said…. “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.”

Smart guy.  Extinct now.  But back in his day… I’ll tell you.  AND.. .he was RIGHT.  All we had to do… us humans….. is clean up after ourselves.

I can only hope we smarten up… and start doing this now.  Everyone.  Each and everyday.  I only hope it isn’t too late to start.   All I know is that it can’t hurt.

“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” -JWvG

“Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.” -JWvG