Summer must be here. Zaya's last day of school is tomorrow and the sun is up and the melons and zucchini and tomato's that I've planted are growing-everything needs tying up and then leaves my hands smelling wonderfully green. A smell that is sacred for its ephemeral-ness like the smell a babies head. As the gardening volunteer for the class, we put together a grand finale in Zaya's classroom- eating coleslaw from the cabbages that we'd planted and singing songs that made even me laugh.
I heard a wonderful bird outside now and thought of the songbirds that are going extinct- being kicked out of their territories by building and development followed by the new climate changing their food sources, changing their lives. Some days I can think of these things and feel overwhelmed- that so many of us care and yet it is hard- beyond the obvious of recycling and caring and trying not to drive my car- to know what to do to help. How much to give and how much to take. Realizing that unless there is a major sea change within each of our lives as a country, even as a world, the devastation will be unfathomable before we realize what we've done.
Reminding me of a segment I heard on npr with sound-recorder/ documentarian Bernie Krause. here is the closest excerpt that I could find:
Among his first lessons on how sound can reveal profound changes in the environment: his recordings of Lincoln Meadow in the Sierra's Yuba Pass. There, he recorded before and after "selective" logging of trees. The company said the work wouldn't affect the habitat, but a year later Krause's recordings showed profound changes.
"The density and diversity of bird and frog life was completely altered. The place looks absolutely fabulous, but the critters are all gone," he said.
--S.F. Chronicle, May 2oth, 2007
Bernie Krause- sounds of silence
He is also integrating some of his sound collections with google earth & google maps- so that you can see the land from above, see a map from above, see the ground from street level, and now hear what the place sounds like. amazing. good? bad? I have no idea. Earth documented, encapsulated, captured and easily accessible. seems to file itself away nicely. http://earth.wildsanctuary.com/
