first, that great picture of you and the others - -what of course, struck me is - not a single woman! what's the percent now in entomology?
second-- what a wonderful description of being hands-on in the forest of that time! (I trust you had good shoes, you must have been barefoot only for moments - I have found in my 11 brief visits in Ecuador's rain forests, from 1981-2018-- that feet were always at risk of various forms of ants.) And the endless forests everywhere! Now, as you cruise down the rivers to the still-anxiety-producing airports, there is just a decorative band of vegetation along the banks, but behind that strip? oil extraction, destroyed forests, no sense of the people who used to live there. No news I can bring here, it's well known and criminal.
Thanks for this account, Walter, and the strikingly beautiful images (is it "paintings" or "drawings"?)
Marylee, there were few women in entomology back then. Now, it is at least 50% women. As for the images, they are drawings with colored pencils. As for the destruction of the tropics, people rarely talk about the fact that at the time of my original trip, there were 2 billion people in the world. Now there are over 8 billion. At the same time, the worldwide standard of living is going up. The effects on the natural world are inevitable. Every human is part of the destruction.
totally so!! and glad to hear about the proportion of women in the field-- now I can ask the proportions in which roles -- senior researchers, heads of departments, etc.
and coloured pencils!!! whew! I have some beautiful drawings made by a friend using some kind of soft crayola??? same luminosity and precision of line and subtlety of shading. and lots of we humans aren't simply part of the destruction, but direct cause--(she said, thinking of her flights to these wonderful places and her letting water run while brushing her teeth.)
This reminds me of a tropical ecology course I took in Belize seven years ago. We were still able to explore the varied tropical habitats and sleep in our hammocks, guided by a brave bus driver across bumpy dirt roads. I'm sure I'll look back on those days for many more years to come, just as you look back on La Selva.
Yeah, you're probably right... but you will have the memory. Your baseline is higher than mine, and mine is higher than people born in the early 20th century. And on and on until the world's population starts declining again.
It's likely that most progress is at the expense of losses. That certainly applies to physical progress and to well-being. Note my response to Marylee above.
But "progress" is a word freighted with positive connotations. A typical useage in the optimistic, triumphalist atmosphere of the second half of the 20th century, my "prime time" Perhaps more neutral would be a term like "change" and I should have used that.
Looking at the planet as a whole, neutral makes some sense, but at a human level, there certainly has been progress in the positive sense. This video by the Swedish health statistician, Hans Rosling makes that point very elegantly:
first, that great picture of you and the others - -what of course, struck me is - not a single woman! what's the percent now in entomology?
second-- what a wonderful description of being hands-on in the forest of that time! (I trust you had good shoes, you must have been barefoot only for moments - I have found in my 11 brief visits in Ecuador's rain forests, from 1981-2018-- that feet were always at risk of various forms of ants.) And the endless forests everywhere! Now, as you cruise down the rivers to the still-anxiety-producing airports, there is just a decorative band of vegetation along the banks, but behind that strip? oil extraction, destroyed forests, no sense of the people who used to live there. No news I can bring here, it's well known and criminal.
Thanks for this account, Walter, and the strikingly beautiful images (is it "paintings" or "drawings"?)
Marylee, there were few women in entomology back then. Now, it is at least 50% women. As for the images, they are drawings with colored pencils. As for the destruction of the tropics, people rarely talk about the fact that at the time of my original trip, there were 2 billion people in the world. Now there are over 8 billion. At the same time, the worldwide standard of living is going up. The effects on the natural world are inevitable. Every human is part of the destruction.
totally so!! and glad to hear about the proportion of women in the field-- now I can ask the proportions in which roles -- senior researchers, heads of departments, etc.
and coloured pencils!!! whew! I have some beautiful drawings made by a friend using some kind of soft crayola??? same luminosity and precision of line and subtlety of shading. and lots of we humans aren't simply part of the destruction, but direct cause--(she said, thinking of her flights to these wonderful places and her letting water run while brushing her teeth.)
This reminds me of a tropical ecology course I took in Belize seven years ago. We were still able to explore the varied tropical habitats and sleep in our hammocks, guided by a brave bus driver across bumpy dirt roads. I'm sure I'll look back on those days for many more years to come, just as you look back on La Selva.
Yeah, you're probably right... but you will have the memory. Your baseline is higher than mine, and mine is higher than people born in the early 20th century. And on and on until the world's population starts declining again.
May that decline come soon, much depends on it.
I can see much may have been gained over the years, but I’ll take hammocks and the mist….
Well, so would I.
Just lovely, as always! Thank you
Thanks, Ellen.
Sometimes things change for the better! Sometimes there's progress!
But in the case of La Selva, gains came with great losses.
It's likely that most progress is at the expense of losses. That certainly applies to physical progress and to well-being. Note my response to Marylee above.
But "progress" is a word freighted with positive connotations. A typical useage in the optimistic, triumphalist atmosphere of the second half of the 20th century, my "prime time" Perhaps more neutral would be a term like "change" and I should have used that.
Looking at the planet as a whole, neutral makes some sense, but at a human level, there certainly has been progress in the positive sense. This video by the Swedish health statistician, Hans Rosling makes that point very elegantly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo