Tuesday, July 6, 2010

1977












I found this mural (copyrighted 1977) sheltered under trees on a small side street a few blocks off Haight. My daughter was born in Berkeley one year earlier than Charles Lobdell painted this large wall in San Francisco to make it look like what he thought at that time life ought to look like, or perhaps even what he thought life did look like. (In those days a small group of cheerful young white Northern Californians would often be deployed unironically like this to depict the entire Human Race.)

These benign nature celebrators of 30 years ago would, I bet, have been interested (though incredulous) to read the following news item from their actual future, dated 2008:

One Third of World Animal Species Became Extinct in Last 30 Years

May 16, 2008, Friday


Between one fourth and one third of all animal species in the world have become extinct in the last thirty years, according to data of the London Zoological Society cited by the BBC.

The population of land animals has gone down 25% ; of sea animals 28% ; and of freshwater animals 29% in thirty years.

Human activity is currently wiping out 1% of all animals from the face of the earth each year. According to the Zoological Society's research, one of the greatest periods of animal extinction is currently going on the planet.