From Parklane Landscapes
Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) is what happens when we forget how vibrant the natural world used to be. Each generation grows up with a more depleted environment and calls it "normal," simply because it's all they've ever known.
Think about walking through a park and thinking, "This seems healthy." But maybe 30 years ago that same park had twice as many birds, wildflowers, or insects. If you never saw that version, you don't feel the loss - and that quiet forgetting becomes the new baseline. Over time, we start accepting degraded ecosystems as normal.
Researchers warn that this shift lowers our expectations, increases our tolerance for decline, and reduces our urgency to protect what's left.
What helps:
Intergenerational conversations that reconnect us with what nature used to be.
Direct experiences with nature that sharpen our awareness of change.
Remembering (knowing) the past is the first step to restoring the future.
Not a sponsor, I don't think it's an AI graphic, and I think it has something important to say. Plus it does have an owl. We can't save our animals if we don't save them the spaces they need to thrive.
So you're saying my brown thumb is not totally my fault??? 😉
The wife is terrified of bees, but I get excited to see them anymore. Especially the weird local bees.
I tried to plant some bee and butterfly friendly plants but they all got cooked in a heat wave last year or something.
Nope! It could also be the fault of J(erk) B(ee) V(dance) so don't forget to orange that sumbitch too
We also say that the bugs and animals all only ever came by to see grandpa and now that he's gone they have no reason to visit.
But yeah heat waves have been really awful. I'm already dying and its not even the hot season. Soon all we'll have that can handle the heat is cockroaches and we'll have to selectively breed them to turn them into pollenators but actually that would be horrendous please no.
🥲
I just got the email today about electricity prices jumping another 30% right in time for summer. We've already had 90 degree (32C) days, so I am not looking forward to this. I am one of those always hot people as it is. 🥵
Weird question, not a dig, in Southern France they have metal or wooden shutters on all the windows. Is that something they have in the south of US? It makes a massive difference and takes zero electricity, then you just need an AC in your bedroom to go to sleep. Probably doesn't work as well on wood houses that trap the heat and heat quickly though?