Commentary

In matters of global economics, the concepts of millions and billions and trillions seem disconnected from day-to-day budgeting. Who knows, I wonder, what all those zeros at the end of whole numbers really mean

As I watch the season progress, I realize that my sense of numbers in the world around me is equally as confused. In the middle of May, the hundred days of summer feel like a zillion days to me. My body senses a limitless promise in that span of time.

I settled in to watch like I used to do when I went fishing. I used to sit for hours then,  focused on my bobber and fingering the tension on my line. The bites or strikes were signs that I had understood something of the river’s mystery and its creatures.

When the lilies were still in bloom a month ago, I went counting lily blossoms every day.  I knew that my practice had almost no socially redeeming value. I knew that no one else cared  about the number of lily blossoms in my yard, and that the actual number did not interest me so much as the counting itself.

I recorded the results of counting in my daybook, but  the record did not support theories of climate change. In fact, it supported nothing at all.

So why did I do it, really?  

The United Nations estimates that world population will increase to 11 billion by the end of the century. UD professor Bob Brecha is thinking how population and sustainability are related and bring us this commentary.

When I was born, world population was less than half what it is today.  I think it’s clear that one reason we’ve started talking about sustainability at all is that the large human population is placing a lot of stress on ecosystems and natural resources.

The Perseid meteors bring starfall to the northeastern portion of the sky on the nights of August 12 and 13, and the arrival of those shooting stars marks high tide of the Dog Days. Rising out of winter’s Taurus and Orion, they cut across Perseus and Andromeda, Cassiopeia and Pegasus, piercing the illusion of endless summer.

Throughout the countryside, Queen Anne's lace, chicory, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, sundrops, bull thistles, mustard, black-eyed Susans, wingstem, mullein and ironweed arein full bloom along the roads.  Soybeans are deep green, corn lush.

Crows are usually silent during their mating time and the time they raise their young. Now, the fledglings are almost grown, and the crows come back together in flocks, and they begin to converse near my house before sunrise.

The singing of robins and cardinals grace the spring and early summer, but as middle summer warms, the songs of those birds grow quiet. The crows, though, are the most faithful morning sky-talkers throughout the late summer, fall and winter.