The James River as seen from Lee Bridge, July 2019 (Photo by Jay Paul)
I once picked up a venomous cottonmouth in a Virginia Beach marsh because I wanted to show friends it was a harmless water snake. Holding the serpent behind its head, I opened its mouth with my other hand to point out that it had no fangs. It had fangs.
The day was cold, and the snake was lethargic, so no animals or people were harmed in the making of this huge mistake. I was young and dumb. Now I’m older and not much smarter, but I can identify a cottonmouth.
There are two points here: I love our environment, including the wildest of creatures. And the worst form of ignorance is knowing you’re right when you’re not.
Fifty years after the first Earth Day (April 22, 1970), there is still a lot we don’t know about the environment — and a lot we think we know that isn’t so.
Case in point: I have researched and written about environmental issues for more than 20 years. People often tell me our waters are getting more polluted, and our air is getting dirtier. In Virginia, at least, those things aren’t true.
Consider the James River in Richmond. A few decades ago, it was frequently awash with human waste. (As they say, waste is a terrible thing to mind.) Today, thanks mainly to tough federal and state laws, you can swim, kayak and snorkel in the James. You can also drown or break an ankle between rocks. Those are the kinds of things you really ought to worry about at the river.
Consider Richmond’s air. Levels of ozone, the main pollutant in smog, have gone down considerably in recent decades, thanks to tougher controls on power plants, cars and other polluters.
Don’t get me wrong. Parts of our rivers remain polluted, and we still get Code Red days where the air is so dirty that some people have trouble breathing. In many environmental areas, there’s a lot left to do.
There are two key areas where things are bad and getting worse: wildlife and climate change. They are often related.
At first glance, you might think wild animals are doing fine. Right here in the city, you can see deer, raccoons and opossums. But deer feast on our backyard plants, and the other creatures eat our trash and outdoor pet food. These are not signs of a particularly healthy environment.
Photo by Jay Paul
Meanwhile, plenty of wildlife is in big trouble. Many songbirds, for example, nest in North America and spend their winters in Central and South America. They are dropping in numbers because we are destroying their wild homes here and in the tropics.
Often blandly called “habitat loss,” this destruction encompasses the burning of the Amazon rainforest as well as the bulldozing of woods in Chesterfield County for a shopping center.
When a forest or field is bulldozed, some small animals, such as box turtles, can be buried alive. Some threatened animals run or fly to other wild places, but those places are already occupied. Maybe we will decide these things are the price of progress. Too often, we don’t think about them at all.
When was the last time you heard a whippoorwill in Short Pump? Whippoorwills nest on the ground, so when we encroach on them, we either destroy their homes outright or we allow our dogs and cats to kill them. It’s murder out there.
By the way, you don’t have to bulldoze an ecosystem to damage it. There are numerous other ways, such as allowing plastics to accumulate in oceans or catching too many fish.
The environmental issue of the day, and the century, is climate change, aka global warming. It is huge, and it is real. When we burn oil, coal and natural gas, we release gases that warm the planet.
There’s still a lot to learn, but scientists who study climate change are nearly unanimous in saying it’s a big problem, and people are causing it.
We have all heard about melting Arctic sea ice and troubled polar bears. But scientists are finding that warming is causing problems here in Virginia, too — problems that will get a lot worse before they get better.
For example, the typical mosquito season in Richmond — the period when warmth and humidity are just right for the bloodsuckers — is a few weeks longer today than in 1980. The pollen season is also getting longer.
When a forest or field is bulldozed, small animals such as box turtles can be buried alive. (Illustration from “North American Herpetology” by John Edwards Holbrook, published in 1838, courtesy Biodiversity Heritage Library)
Sea levels are rising along our coast, apparently at an increasing pace. (Warming water expands. Along with the melting of ice on land, this pushes up sea levels.) Coastal flooding is getting worse. Small islands in the Chesapeake Bay are disappearing. On top of all that, natural forces in eastern Virginia are making the land sink.
Still, some people, including key political leaders, say human-made climate change is a myth. They believe scientists across the globe are deceiving us for some strange reason. It’s a huge conspiracy theory that puts the fake moon landing to shame.
If you are confused but open-minded, do a web search for “climate change” and “the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.” This august scientific institution offers online guides to climate change for laypeople. Also check “climate change” and “NASA.”
Looking for solutions?
Do your best to pollute less. Use less stuff. Plant trees. Ultimately, though, victory for the environment will come down to raw political power. And that means supporting groups and leaders who support the environment.
Have I depressed you? Get up early tomorrow and listen to the singing birds. It’s breeding season, and as Emily Dickinson wrote, hope is the thing with feathers.
Freelance writer Rex Springston covered environmental issues for more than 20 years for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He lives in the Fan District with his wife, Kathy.
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