Few Thoughts on World Wildlife Day 2020

There are many things I find quite poetic about Vienna. One of them is the Viennese’s customary weekend strolls through the Vienna Central Cemetery. Yes, you read that right. Many take the central cemetery in Vienna as another city park. Some bloggers have called this a somewhat “morbid” behavior, but I get it, and I personally love this whole idea.

The main cemetery of Vienna is beautifully kept. It has a very long and interesting history. You walk through impressive marble tombs where you find Beethoven, Strauss Sr and Jr, Boltzmann, and even a Mozart cenotaph. Mozart is actually buried in a different cemetery in Vienna.

But there’s also quite some wildlife there. I guess there’s something even more morbid about me that I chose the photos of roe deer hanging out in a cemetery to talk about World Wildlife Day this year.

We need wildlife more than it needs us

We’re fast-track-driving wildlife to their hypothetical cemetery at rates that are definitely human-induced.

We benefit from wildlife every day. Directly or indirectly, we enjoy lovely vacation spots, medicines, fertile soils, clean water, hobbies, disease control, entertainment, food security. The list goes on. The personal, spiritual, and global economic benefits we all get from wildlife on a daily basis are countless. Imagine how many things we don’t know yet! How many species we even haven’t identified yet! Yet, through many human activities, we keep making them disappear.

So today I invite you to think of the ways you have benefited from wildlife this year. I’ll start. I’m definitely biased, but for many of us wildlife creates job opportunities (and we can all agree that jobs are a collective benefit). I’m lucky to live in a very green city where I can enjoy daily doses of nature that greatly improve my mental madness (and wallet!). And well, there’s food. I eat every day – don’t you?

So tell me, what benefits have you perceived from wildlife lately?

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[kofi]