Rebecca – I’m glad to hear that the missing acorn crisis didn’t affect WV. I don’t know that good economic news for the state is good news in the long run, though, considering how much of that wealth generation probably comes from mining coal.

Lucy – Yes, it’s very hard to go against prevailing wisdom and suggest that there might be anything wrong with consumerism, aside for vague attacks on “materialism” by some religious leaders. Well, I mean of course it’s a commonplace among conservationists, but the opinion-makers don’t take us seriously because we are clearly unrealistic. They, the bubble-makers, are the realists.

deb – No, I haven’t read that one yet. I would actually like to see a concerted effort to bring back native pollinators. As I’m sure the book pointed out, this wouldn’t be nearly so much of a crisis if it hadn’t been for decades of “clean farming” leading farmers to plow up all the hedgerows and weedy corners where native bees and wasps once flourished. Our dependence on one species for essential pollination services is as crazy as pre-famine Ireland’s planting of one strain of potatoes.

(I finished the book about bee decline. This fits so well with what Jacobsen wrote. Have you read it? Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis by Rowan Jacobsen.)

Great writing, I loved the acorn/Chicken-licken denouement, as I’d forgotten it was about him! The bats were particularly poignant.