(From article: The Great Hawaiian Die-off, by
Susanna Moore, Los Angeles Times, 08/02/2015)
From Creation’s list strike-through:
The ‘ea, or hawkbill turtle
The Ridley sea, green, loggerhead
And leatherback turtles
Also the Hawaiian hoary bat
The kohola, or humpback whale
Also the great sperm whales
Plus the endemic monk seal
There are 34 birds no longer seen
The Hawaiian goose and hawk
The Maui parrotbill
The red-legged stilt
The Nihoa millerbird among them
Out of 99 species of tree snails
Only twenty five remain
And nine of those on the brink
Fauna and flora are not overlooked
O no, all creation’s attacked
Endangered is the white hibiscus
So’s the Hawaiian gardenia or na’u
Add to that the Pritchardia palm
Better known as the silversword
And the small yellow campanula
“Last seen on a cliff on Kauai”
The writer posits a conundrum:
“The chance of any species reaching
And then surviving on an island
As distant as one (such as) the Hawaiian
Chain is infinitesimal….
Despite extraordinary odds”
Who knows how many eons elapsed
Since Jah prepared the island soil for seed
And caused them to flourish and thrive
But what science has proudly documented
Without a shred of irony
(Which the writer was lamenting)
Is this: that at least 271 species
“Have become extinct in the last 200 years”
Upon this group of paradisiac isles
All of which had floated benignly
So very prettily
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean
And yet…the writer bemoans
In all the world
In just those few isles
Belong “the highest number…
…of threatened species”
How could that possibly be?
Pray tell?
JUST PRAY
By Jahgirl
02/20/2016