Biodiversity in the City (Biodivercity!)

Cities conjure visions of congestion, skyscrapers, traffic, noise and pollution. Urbanites are usually depicted as world weary souls so alienated from nature they can't tell a cow from a dog. People are resigned that citi-zens will never make a difference in saving the planet.

Well, I disagree. Cities and citi-zens have a role. Citi-zens, rise up from your couches! Demand that our cities be walkable, be clean, be green (with indigenous vegetation/species, please), and manage urban sprawl! Let's stop pretending that developments at the slopes of fragile mountains and close to waterways are expressions of people being "one with nature." By keeping a proper density of buildings and wild vegetation in settlements, we are actually containing our largely destructive species within humane, livable places. We could also stop pretending that we can do no harm to the planet.

Be responsible, humans! Get to know the other species in the planet. And respect their habitats. (And, by the way, respect your own habitats, too.)

I just got home from China and my last stop was Hong Kong. Not to shop (in any case, I don't like shopping, anyway) but to bird and allow myself to be regenerated by nature. And man, did I encounter biodiversity! Not on my plate, but in the walks I took.

Here's a photo of a firefly.

He had a message! "Earthling, take me to your leader." "Fireflies have a right to the city, too," he said.

Oh, how do I know it's a "he?" Well, it was in the men's rest room at Tai Po Kau Nature reserve.







And here's another one.


Isn't it beautiful? That's a Psammodynastes pulverulentus, or Common Mock Viper. I nearly missed it if not for the watchful eyes of my friend/ nature guide in HK, birder- beerder-ecology teacher & topnotch nature photographer Samson So.

It was my first time to see a snake in the wild. So happy. And a firefly up close. I'm Delirious.
( 24 November 2008)