conflict averted, for now

This cartoon from The Atlantic magazine, September 2010, has been perched quietly in the computer, waiting to be Photoshopped a little and posted. It just needed a label on that awning and some greenery along the path and it would have represented a future we dreaded for Kah Tai. Perhaps the street signs could have been labeled 'Hell' and 'High Water'. There's no telling what is ahead for Kah Tai, but it is likely it won't look like this in our lifetimes, now that the Port and City have a swap in the works.

A new article in the science journal Nature speculates, with considerable supporting data, that loss of biodiversity is increasingly likely to be a tipping point for irreversible change in the coming years. A diverse ecosystem is far better suited to respond to rapidly changing conditions. When we're down to urban habitat fit only for pigeons and English sparrows, we won't stand much of a chance at survival. Our own little urban habitat at Kah Tai boasts nearly 100 documented daylight bird species. Native plant species increase in number and diversity with diligent effort by many concerned citizens. It is our own small contribution to a buffer for the ecosystem at large.