Puffin’s Place

If the prognosticators are even close to being right, pretty soon polar bears and many, many other kinds of wildlife will leave the world entirely to those responsible for the vanishing ice, the polluted rivers, the poachers and hunters, and the varied threats that come with the incursion of people into environments that were once left for wildlife. It is not huge flight of fancy to assume that eventually what wildlife we have will be asked to be grateful for a zoo cage or naturalized environment. Already polar bears are eating each other for lack of their natural diets. Some politicians are seeking hacked off wolf legs and paying bounties for each one. In short, that part of the world that is the most fascinating and the most valuable to many of us will simply be gone.

So what are we going to do? It is perfectly clear that no one of us can do much at all, but I wonder if all of us—or at least those who find being with an animal, rather it be a domestic cat or dog, or a bison or molting reindeer an experience that human relationships fail to duplicate—cannot make a difference in the little time we have left.

Consider becoming part of one of the following organizations—through donations, letter writing, gigging your legislators, or turning your passive friends into activists>

The World Wildlife Fund [only 18% of budget goes to fund raising and administration]

The National Wildlife Federation [17% of budget to admin. and fund raising] And check this site for statements of policy by Senators Obama and McCain.

International Fund for Animal Welfare [13% admin. and fund raising]

The Humane Society of the US [19% of budget for admin. and ffund raising]

The ASPCA [17% of budget for admin. and fund raising]

and The Wildlife Trust [27% of budget for admin. and fund raising]

Finally, dubious about the organization or want to read comments on each organization by others, all you need to do is check the organization with The Charity Navigator site.

Think about it. We waste gas and food and plastic and all sorts of things. Do we want also to waste our rare and wonderful opportunity to respect and learn from one third of the life of the world? A dollar a month from a million people. A letter a month to those who make—or fail to make—laws impacting animals. A reminder, locally and globally, that animals offer us a dimension no human being can.

We might be able to pull it off. Those polar pups in the film might find themselves in a less indifferent world.