One of the downsides of globalization is that all sorts of critters are ending up in all sorts of places they didn't used to be, and not fitting in well. One of them is the Asian longhorned beetle which was discovered in Worcester a couple of years ago, with the result that every tree in the city was cut down and chipped. The beetle kills maples, willows, and birches.
Now they've found it in my neighborhood, and right across the street from the Arnold Arboretum no less. If it got from Worcester to Boston, it obviously must be at points in between. Now I have to worry about my woods in Connecticut, and indeed, all of New England. Sure, over geological time, land masses are joined and then severed, mountains rise and fall, and species that were once excluded from an ecosystem suddenly show up and wreak havoc. It's nature. The point is, it's happening much more often nowadays than it did before Homo sapiens came along and started stitching together the entire globe.
Maples and birches are as essential to the New England landscape as the Berkshires and the Connecticut River. It would be unbearable to lose them.
Discussion of public health and health care policy, from a public health perspective. The U.S. spends more on medical services than any other country, but we get less for it. Major reasons include lack of universal access, unequal treatment, and underinvestment in public health and social welfare. We will critically examine the economics, politics and sociology of health and illness in the U.S. and the world.
That's truly a major bummer, Cervantes. Effing catastrophe, though I doubt anyone truly believed that cutting and burning the Worcester county trees was going to do the trick.
ReplyDelete