The folks who tune-in here will be pleased to watch this five minute video titled: The Log 2: Another Year. Nature photographer, Robert Bush Sr., set up a wildlife camera at the of a log that had fallen across a very active stream in Pennsylvania. Who would have thought!
But as we watch the magic and wonder unfold over the days, weeks and months, (see the temperature, time and date notes along the bottom of the video) we might keep in mind that during the past three years, one hundred (100!) environmental protections have been rolled back, leaving the waterways, air, soil, animals and plants increasingly vulnerable before the nation's money-adoration, turning the paradise into a wasteland.
11 environmental protections for animals rolled back
8 rollbacks for toxic substance safety
20 rollbacks for drilling and extraction
11 rollbacks for water safety and on and on...
Beyond the rollbacks, more previously secure areas have been opened up to logging, mining and drilling, further diminishing wilderness protections.
It's not farfetched to imagine that the wonderfully alive creek Mr. Bush has filmed here will disappear sooner than later. We are a land of pavement, pollution and plunder. When one Sunday I suggested that protecting the very life of the planet was a Pro-Life concern, one parishioner went around coining me, "Father Pro-Choice." Sometimes Christian thinking disappoints and grieves me — that we so box the cosmic Christ whose Easter life radiates and loves every bit of creation — even the green frog that jumps out of the alive water and onto the log as the black bear passes by. Did you see it?!
