Sharing the earth with nature and surviving pandemics

Obama has 8 or 9 big problems, not 7 or 8

by Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com

Yesterday when I learned the news of how the World Health Organization was raising the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5, I came across a picture I took several weeks ago near my home in West El Paso. It is a picture of another construction site where like most construction sites in El Paso the earth was leveled and desert habitat completely destroyed. I will never understand why developers cannot find ways to save more of the habitat they are destroying so that native plants and animals still have a chance of surviving. So few people in our community seem to care about what is happening to desert animals like the roadrunners, rock squirrels, whiptail lizards and kangaroo rats, yet alone the great diversity of desert plants, who live in these places.

If more of us only knew, if more of us were connected to the natural world that surrounds us, the situation we are in would be much different. How can we survive this pandemic and future pandemics without protecting the natural world we share the planet with? Even our new President seems to be missing the point. He said in his 100 day news conference that he has about seven or eight big problems to deal with including the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, getting health care passed, figuring out how to deal with energy independence, deal with Iran, and a pandemic flu. He should have said 8 or 9 big problems and added to his list how human activities are increasingly threatening the world’s biodiversity.

Yes, it is a very big problem and when historians look back on this century they will no doubt be able to see how our 7 or 8 big problems were just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to the greatest threat to this country and the rest of the world, the continuing loss of biodiversity.

Mara Burney, a research associate at the American Council on Science and Health, wrote a report published in 2002 by Harvard Medical School on why biodiversity is a public health issue. She said “Biodiversity -- the variety of life, ecosystems, species, populations, and genes -- may at first seem like an issue merely for the environmentalists and hippies, far removed from the medical community. But if you think that the recent flurry of deadly emergent diseases such as SARS, Ebola, bird flu, West Nile, and even AIDS are unrelated to environmental issues -- think again. “

If we don’t get serious about the loss of biodiversity, and getting serious starts in our own backyard, we will no doubt lose an incredible wealth of potential medical treatments. Some of these treatments could possibly help scientists develop cures for pandemic diseases and new ways to help with disease prevention.

To quote Burney again “Consider the cancer drug Taxol, made from the Pacific yew tree; which was initially derived from poppies; and Artemisia, which yielded treatments for resistant strains of malaria. In addition, microbes -- the most diverse organisms on the planet -- also hold promise: aminoglycosides, a group of antibiotics used in the treatment of severe infections, were derived from a bacterium found in tropical soil. Animal species too are treasure troves of medicines: the cone snail yields a toxin (recently FDA-approved under the name "Prialt") that is a thousand times more potent than morphine as a painkiller but does not lead to tolerance or addiction. That same snail also yields a broad-spectrum anti-epileptic used for the treatment of intractable epilepsy. It should go without saying that the destruction of species such as these means that potential cures are lost forever. Even species that may seem inconsequential to human life (like soil microbes or cone snails) actually have the potential to improve human life greatly -- if they are not driven to extinction.

Who is to say that potential cures for this pandemic and future pandemics are waiting to be discovered right here in our own backyard, the Chihuahuan Desert? Do we have the wisdom and the will to turn things around before it is too late?

Here are four steps that every community, every nation needs to take to deal with one the biggest problems facing our world today:

1. Launch a full blown education campaign where every member of the community is engaged with information on why protecting biodiversity is important the survival of the human race and how they can take action in their daily lives.

2. Establish new laws and regulations to protect the biodiversity that remains in our communities and surrounding habitats paying close attention to current threats to habitat loss and the decline in native plant and animal populations.

3. Enact full or partial moratoriums on all new developments where wild habitats are being destroyed. At the same time develop strategic plans on how developments can continue that provide for both people and native plants and animals.

4. Develop plans designed to restore native habitats where plants and animals have been seriously impacted and need our help to recover to sustainable population levels.

We need to start seriously thinking about not only the “change we can believe in” but also the “changes we must take” to survive the environmental situation we are living in. If we don’t then nothing else will matter, not wars, not energy independence, not the economy, or much of anything else.

Will the dream of a giant park on the border be revived after Obama's visit to Mexico?

by Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com/peaceparks

This area is just four hours east of El Paso and the creation of the international park would greatly enhance ecotourism in the West Texas.

(El Paso, Texas, April 19, 2009 Update) Earlier this month I learned that a new effort is underway in Mexico that could re-open US/Mexico talks on the long proposed international park in the Big Bend National Park region of West Texas. Two sources in Acuna, Coahuila and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon confirm that the Governor of Coahuila was working on a presentation for President Obama and President Calderon proposing that Mexico and the US once again seriously consider the creation of what once was reported on in El Paso as the "Giant Park Proposal" (see 1936 article below).

It is unclear at this time if the park proposal was discussed. An article posted on yesterday's El Universal.com indicates that the two presidents did discuss numerous projects on the border that could help with Mexico's economy opening that the possibility the park was discussed as a ecotourism initiative.

The originally proposed international park needs to be completed and I hope that President Obama and President Calderon will find time to discuss the proposal.

An international park combining Big Bend National Park with protected areas across the border in Coahuila and Chihuahua will:

(1) help to call international attention to the transboundary protected areas and the need to promote the long term protection of the region's fascinating flora and fauna including a number of rare and endangered species,
(2) become a permanent monument and symbol of peace between the US and Mexico, one that President Roosevelt said would celebrate the friendship between the two countries and be a meeting ground where the people of both countries and citizens from all parts of the world could come together to learn about each other’s culture while coming to better understand the natural world that they all share.
(3) help to call the region's attention to the needs of people living in rural areas without adequate running water, electricity, sanitation and educational opportunities. The people living in the area cannot be expected to support the long term protection of the region if their needs are not also taken care of.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry Truman were strong advocates of the US/Mexico international park and Roosevelt proclaimed six months before his death that “"I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park."
I want to see Big Bend made complete because I love the park where I lived and worked for nearly 17 years. I hope you will join me and others in helping to make this dream for both countries and the world finally come true.

rickllobello@cs.com

Read the Story from the El Paso Herald Post in 1936

El Paso Herald Post, November 6, 1936

Will Discuss Big Bend Park

Arno M. Cammerer, director of the National Park Service, will be in El Paso, Sunday, to discuss with Mexican officials boundaries of a proposed International Park, the American half which would be in Brewster County.

PROPOSED PARK GIANT PROJECT

Officials Will Arrive Here Sunday for Parley On Recreation Site

The proposed Big Bend International Park will be one of the biggest developments ever undertaken by the National Park Service, according to Assistant Director Conrad L. Wirth, who is enroute here with other Washington officials of the National Park Service to attend a two-day conference opening Sunday with representatives of the Mexican government. 'Boundaries of the park will be discussed.

In my opinion," said Mr. Wirth, "the Big Bend International Park will be one of the greatest recreational and educational ventures ever undertaken by the National Park Service. The benefits to the people of Mexico and the United States will be almost unlimited."

Director Arno B. Cammerer and Assistant Directors Wirth and G. A. Moskey will arrive here Sunday morning with Herbert Maier of Oklahoma City, regional officer of the National Park Service, in charge of cooperative development of state parks in Texas. and other Southwestern States.

They will be met here by representatives of the U. S. Biological Survey and the International Boundary Commission, to confer with Daniel F. Galicia and other from the. Department of Forestry; Fish and Game of Mexico.

Tentative boundaries have been agreed upon at previous joint meetings of the two commissions.
The sessions here are expected to result in final determination for presentation to the respective governments. It is probable these boundaries will include about 788,000 acres for the Big Bend National Park of Texas—all in Brewster County- and approximately 400,000 acres for the Mexican National Park in the States of Chihuahua and Coahuila.

The two-parks would be linked by a bridge across the Rio Grande at Boquillas.