Summer by the sea

(Reblogging in English)

I have spent every summer of my life on the Swedish west coast. This is from where I have some of my earliest memories and also further on growing up; days of swimming, fishing, rowing and sailing. The freedom to paddle around the corner or sail the dinghy to the next island. Long summer days, where activities were dictated only by weather and friends.

There are also other memories, from nature and wildlife. Crabs, fish, at times an eel swimming in the seagrass as visioned through the divers mask. Butterflies and bumble bees, eiders and gulls. All what makes summer up.

But now the memory pictures don’t match todays reality. I remember the eiders with their ducklings in a long row behind, now I rarely see them. Was my recollection wrong? Then I read that 70% of seabirds have disappeared since the 1950’s, my time by the sea. How many of us have even noticed this in our era of momentary attention? 

Also the insects are fewer now, I remember how the bumble bees used to scare my son as a toddler. Yes, I still see the bumble bees, but fewer of them. These natural pollinators that give us our fruits and berries are threatened by climate change. Sure I could wish for warmer days on a summer like this, but not at the cost of the bees. It’s not only the climate that is changing, we change nature, take away the weeds they like and use pesticides that drain their energy.

Birds and bees, when will we realise that they really are canaries in the coal mine and that their downfall may be a harbinger for what is happening to us?