Nature bats last

PBS featured a program tonight on the “Wolves of Chernobyl.”  Because of the nuclear power plant meltdown, a large area of Belarus and Ukraine have been declared off limits to humans.  Animals and plants, however, never got the memo.  The area teems with wildlife, including over 100 wolves in a number of packs.  Beavers have dammed up the canals and created wetlands, bison have been introduced, and the towns and villages in the zone are reverting back to the natural state.  The animals have a larger than average amount of birth defects, but they are thriving in spite of that.

Somewhat the same thing has happened in the DMZ between North and South Korea.  A narrow wildlife refuge, unmolested by humans, now stretches across the middle of Korea.  

Perhaps after the human race succeeds in killing itself off, and it seems well along the way to accomplishing that, the earth will once again right itself.  The philosopher Barry Commoner coined the phrase “nature bats last.”  It is something to remember on the opening day of the World Series.