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The Frog King Doth Hereby Decree
As a favor to The Frog King himself, we have decided to set out into the world from a starting place atop the lily pad. It is, after all, a very wide world in its extensive wonder, and knowing where to start can be the most difficult decision of all.
We imagine you might feel this way yourself. Who doesn’t feel the need to do something about the mess we’ve made of our little house. But it’s so overwhelming! Not a one of us could save the world on our own, and no one can do all of the good things that might be done to comfort Mother Nature and bring her back to right and proper health.
Do I go to a rally in the town square? Plant a dozen trees? Write legislation for my state representative? Separate out my plastics for recycling, but which ones are recyclable?
Even in the age of jet travel and hotel chains that make Singapore feel like Cleveland, Ohio, the world is a place almost too large to imagine—and then only in a quiet hour, not each moment of the day. Greenhouse gases, non-point pollution, renewable resource depletion, and species extinction among other environmental concerns are all global, affect even the strangers we know least in the world as much as they endanger our children, our parents, and our cherished neighbors. These problems snuck up on us like a slowly building storm, and it sometimes feels like all we can do is let it run its course, battening down the hatches and heading for the storm cellar until it has all blown over.
Can’t do that. We know we can’t but neither do we have the time-energy-patience (even hope?) to confront all the world’s problems at once. So let’s start somewhere.
Did you know that ponds truly are little worlds of their own? Most are closed systems, with no or little outflow and fed by underground springs. Critters bound to water are generally stuck with one pond, generation after generation. Whatever is brought to the pond stays there, whether it is good for the community or not. That includes fish dropped from the mouths of over-flying birds as well as pollutants that run off from our roads and into the adjacent ponds.
Nearby, somewhere there is a pond you can adopt. Go out, spend some quality time with it, come to call it your own. Save it from drying up and getting buried under if you live in the Southwestern American states. Look into acid rain and mercury pollution in the Northeast. In Britain, get involved with any of a number of local groups that seek to protect the artificial ponds that have been decimated over the past century. The ponds of Asia are being crowded out, used up, and overwhelmed by overflowing population centers.
More articles will follow this one as we explore the ponds. What is a pond, why are they in trouble, what can we do? We’ll try to answer all of those questions, together walking hand-in-hand around The Frog King’s home.
In the meantime, we want to get to know your ponds, if you already have claimed them. Send us a picture! Or tell us why you’ve adopted it as your own. Can you see it from the kitchen window? Is it a spot you share with other visitors, and of what sorts?
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