Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 10, 2019

Now we can’t leave natural areas without getting fined for neglect.

many “natural places” are being loved to death. I really got a kick out of the recent " animal attacks" Where people have been mislead bu Disney and they try to touch wild animals like Bison. How that work out for them? And of course the animal " attacked"

People have always thought that animals in the wild are some how tamed or like human contact. Swimming with dolphins is a prime example.

And the more people “want to see it before it’s gone” the faster it’ll be gone.

If it hadn’t been for events like Theodore Roosevelt’s move to start a national parks program, and series such as Disney’s wild movies and National Geographic specials, along with Wild Kingdom and others, interest in the natural world and its preservation might never have reached the point it has today. Many wild lands and natural wonders would have gone under the hammer and disappeared altogether.

As to Mr. Spaetzle’s comment, while tv offers a much broader spectrum of nature programs, it suffers when compared to seeing them on theater screens of the 1940’-50’s. Those stunning films awakened the senses and caused dozens to hundreds of viewers to gasp in awe, cringe in shock, or feel sadness or joy at the outcome of some natural event. The after-movie chatter was loud and boisterous, especially the children. One comment often heard: I’d like to go there some day on our vacation. That might still be said but is now muted as the remote pilot runs the channels for the next viewers’ choice program.

I was planning a trip to the Glacier National Park in the US to see the glaciers. After researching it, I found it’s no longer a great spot for exploring glaciers (from over 125 glaciers when I was a kid to only a few dozen rapidly shrinking ones now). I will need to consider Scandinavia, Canada, or Argentina for up-close glacial encounters.

As the climate zones are shifting rapidly polewards – without the nature being able to adapt as fast – the stuff we’re used to go to during vacation will be lost. It will be turned into fables of voluptous green, uncountable number of insect species, gracefull animals, vast oceans teeming whith fish and mild air where so many birds fly and flutter, that no one could name all kinds.

We can actually help with this in the short term (what we’re doing on a macro scale aside for a moment) – one of the quickest killers of the reefs is our sunscreen. It’s not enough to say “reef-safe” – those only remove the worst offender – it also has to say "no micronized titanium or zinc.

Puts me in mind of Edward G. Robinson’s last scene in “Soylent Green.” Still a classic, yet more relevant than ever.

Just don’t wear any sunscreen if you go snorkeling.

PostsFrazz18 hrs ·

Whoa, that one was a downer. Although, maybe not. After all, many, maybe even most, of those movies that were supposedly gone forever are available on Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon, Kanopy or some other platform. Not only can you still watch them, you can watch them on demand without ever leaving your sofa.

Which will be scant consolation or salvation the day leaving the sofa becomes the thing that’s gone forever.

I tried to stream it but ended up fielding it instead. If only there were some magazine that could teach me about both those things.

See the excellent documentary Chasing Coral https://www.facebook.com/chasingcoral/