Even the Pantanal is having difficulty holding its own!

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

While cleaning out a storage space at my home the other day, I came across

a copy of the June 9, 1992 edition of Time magazine.

Opening it was akin to examining the contents of a time capsule. A cigarette

advertisement took up the whole back cover of the issue -- and included no warnings

of the deleterious health effects of smoking cigarettes! How wonderful that such

advertising is no longer tolerated! A step in the right direction!

However, the places described as seeing conflict and strife in 1992 were more or

less the same then as they are now in 2018: the Balkans, the region around the Crimean

peninsula, Southeast Asia, the Middle East...

It was big news that Paul McCartney had just turned 50 -- Now, he is 76... Life goes

on -- and people age as a result...

What drew my attention the most, however, was 5 pages devoted to Earth's plight.

Four of those pages were an article "Brazil's Two Faces": by Michael S. Serrill; the

fifth page was an essay on the final page of the issue called "Making Things Happen in

Rio" by Thomas E. Lovejoy. As I read through those pages and looked at the photos they

contained, it was clear to me that the destruction of Earth's ecosystem is even worse now

than it was back in 1992.

Several steps in the wrong direction!

The "United Nations Conference on Environment and Development" -- or "the Rio de

Janeiro Earth Summit" -- was underway as the June 8, 1992 Time magazine issue rolled off the

presses.

The results of that gathering of 108 nations led to the popularization of the notion of "sustainable

development" as well as to the proliferation of "Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) -- which

is all well and good.

However, since that meeting exactly 26 years ago, Earth's air quality has worsened, her average

temperature has increased, her oceans have become more sullied, and her biodiversity has shrunk.

Unless we make drastic changes immediately, our biodiversity will disappear, leaving emaciated

and stressed survivors exposed to increased likelihood of extinction.

Among the 5 pages of the Time magazine issue cited here, was a half-page report by a person

named Eugene Linden, entitled "Where Mankind and Nature Get Along"... I just wonder how the upbeat

tone of Linden's description of "The Pantanal" mega-wetland in that report would hold up today...

Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

Yes, that’s a cigarette advertisement on the back cover

— and no health warnings!

I am sure the wording of this 1992 article would be less optimistic

describing the Pantanal’s condition now, in 2018.

These large water lilies can each

support the weight of a 30-kilogram child.

Their diameters are about 175 centimeters.

Such lilies exist only in the Pantanal.

EarthSaver