My Writing Life: Awareness, Reflection, Inspiration: The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

“What more could anyone ask from a new year than the promise –or just the hope—of renewal?” Margaret Renkl.

I dare say that hope is not enough. Hope is in desperate need of awareness, reflection and inspiration to make sustainable, empathic choices.

I was drawn into Margaret Renkl’s world when I learned about her interest in rescueing a sick fox. Margaret Renkl lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she has formed a close bond with the wildlife on her backyard by observing her surroundings.

The sick fox was probably suffering from mange. Margaret explains that mange is common in suburban foxes because the “manicured” gardens deprive foxes of the sources of food they need to survive. Under normal, healthy conditions foxes’ immune systems may be able to fight off the mites that cause mange, but suburban foxes suffer the consequences of the use of poisons that people use in their gardens. “Manicured” lawns use different poisons, and Margaret Renkl elucidates it in simple terms:

“Homeowners set out poisons that keep seeds of weeds from germinating. Then they spray a different poison that kills any plants that germinate anyway. Still another poison kills the insects that eat the “desirable” plants. Yet another kills the field mice trying to survive in a place without fields.

“And those poisons end up in the air and the water. They end up in our bodies, linked to asthma, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, autism, and several cancers.” She is distraught to watch the consequences of bluebirds ingesting poisoned insects, and Cooper’s hawks eating those bluebirds.

I am thankful for this book, for it conveys the information that can make a difference in our communities.

Over the years I've tried to communicate her message in several ways to different people, but to no avail. I witnessed a massive increase in the use of pesticides and herbicides recently.

I used to relish the visit of various kinds of bees on the wildflowers in my pollinator garden, and I wrote about bees a few times here. Then in the year 2024 I hardly saw any bees in my garden. It was a lonely experience.

I contacted a professor of entomology from a reputable university. I was sent multiple scientific papers, which validate my concerns and support the content of My Writing life blog. I have used several books at My Writing Life blog: Awareness, reflection, Inspiration to motivate people to do the right thing, but it has not been enough.

I still come across the fake “pollinator gardens” with pesticides on the lawn. It is necessary to communicate the message with clarity: a pollinator garden with pesticides on its lawn is NOT a pollinator garden. Pesticides take a toll on the health of pollinators, so let people know that by using pesticides on their lawn they are not creating a pollinator garden. They are doing just the opposite.

What is not to like about the graceful flight of a monarch butterfly visiting our backyards?

I am thrilled when I come across a toad in the safe haven of our garden. We don’t spray herbicides and pesticides in our yard. In refraining from spraying poisons, we create a little forest of hope in our tiny corner of Mother Earth.

I could spend hours appreciating the masterpiece of patterns and colors that Mother Nature put together in this toad’s skin…I had never seen a toad like this one before, so I took this photo. Strangely enough, this toad has the smooth skin of a frog. I am enchanted by the beauty and mystery of this amphibian.

Did you know that toads can feed on thousands of mosquitoes every summer? Yes, they do eat a variety of insects, and mosquitoes are included in their menu. We don’t have to poison the toads. They are very sensitive to the chemicals humans use in their gardens. We need the toads to do what they are expected to do in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystems where we can all thrive without poisoning our water, air and soil.

With climate change getting worse, no repellent will be able to deal with the consequences of the proliferation of mosquitoes. Diseases such as Dengue and West Nile encephalitis, which are transmitted by mosquitoes, are rising steadily.

Mosquitoes are part of the source of food for toads and spiders, and we need toads and spiders in the web of life, but the use of pesticides and herbicides are destroying their lives, and, in the process, we are suffering the consequences of this lack of judgment. The bats are also in need of protection, and I explained this before here.

The gist of The Comfort of Crows

The Comfort of Crows is akin to a personal journal in which Margaret Renkl shares her connection with wildlife and her concerns over what we humans are doing to the environment and to ourselves. There are threads of her personal life interwoven into her narrative, but the charm of her book lies in her observations of wildlife and her response to her setting. In other words, she shares her poetical musings and the practical ways in which she tries to support what remains amid the destruction caused by irrationality, denial and neglect.

The limitations of her actions did not stop Margaret Renkl from making choices that leave sparks of hope for the reader.

She contemplates the wonders of the four seasons, marveling at the lives of the creatures that surround her. She also shares the grief that emerges from watching nature closely. The effects of climate change and the multiple poisons that people use in their “manicured” gardens are evident.

I think we should start calling them gardens of death or doom instead of using the word “manicured” gardens to refer to the abuse of such chemicals.

It was also heartbreaking to read about the loss of some of the trees in her own garden, which took place after the happily married couple next to her backyard died. The builders came with their equipment and harmed the roots of her own old trees.

As you know, the roots of trees do not understand anything about property lines, so the parts of the roots that were harmed in her neighbors’ home killed her trees altogether.

The thoughtless actions of these builders could be used as a metaphor and a symbol of the lack of awareness and empathy in certain human behaviors.

Trees are not just trees

Trees provide the oxygen we need to survive. They provide relief from the intense summer heat and protect the soil from erosion. Trees are not just trees, but they are also the organisms that live in them. Furthermore, trees supply the dead leaves that feed the soil, the leaves that form the shelter on the ground to various living beings belonging to complex ecosystems that support our own life on earth, and all these creatures play necessary roles in the precious web of life. You may not see them, but they are there and they need those dead leaves on the ground.

Using mathematics to spark awareness

You will encounter people who don’t understand that destroying the environment is bad for the economy. I come across them often. We are responsible for helping them understand that supporting the health of ecosystems makes our economies stronger, and we have to make clear that destroying ecosystems is shattering economies across the world. To do so, we can use the power of mathematics. I can give a few examples here:

A single bat can eat 3,000 insects in one night. Bats contribute one million dollars a year to Thailand’s economy by helping to reduce the loss of rice crops. In the United States of America, bats save three billion dollars every year by protecting corn and cotton crops. In addition to being pollinators, bats’ droppings are effective fertilizers. Poisoning their sources of food is a very bad idea.

More than 80 percent of the leading 115 major crop species worldwide depend on or partially benefit from floral visitation by animal pollinators. Pollination by animals contribute to an estimated 35 percent of global total crop production. Globally, the animal value of insect pollination of plants was estimated to be around 190.5 billion U.S. dollars.

In addition to addressing the massive use of pesticides and herbicides, we have to acknowledge and tackle the climate crisis. Climate change will continue to increase the price of food. In 2023 extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and floods were the main disruptors of food prices, even though the mainstream media has failed to report this critical issue consistently. These events caused widespread damage to crops and livestock globally.

Rice, for example, cannot get efficiently self-pollinated in hotter temperatures. Extreme heat degrades the grain quality and reduces its yield.

Severe weather patterns degrade the quality of our produce. Heat waves scorch fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects the micronutrient content of produce. The elevated levels of carbon dioxide led to a decrease in the root uptake of nutrients by the plants according to research. A decline in the content of minerals in the plants, such as zinc, potassium, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and copper due to high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been well documented.

Severe weather events are expensive reasons for crop loss: for example, 118.7 billion dollars in 2021-2022 were lost in crops value.

In the year 2024, 500 billion dollars were lost in damages in the United States of America due to extreme weather events according to a report by AccuWeather. To understand how disaster events are on the rise, it may be helpful to check the graph from this link of Yale Connections:

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/u-s-billion-dollar-weather-disasters-set-an-all-time-record-in-2023-with-28/

The artworks in this post and my final message

I have shared some of the delightful artworks included in the book. The artist who created the masterpieces is Billy Renkl, Margaret’s brother.

I will close this post with a quote by Margaret Renkl, because it summarizes what she tries to communicate in The Comfort of Crows:

“I rejoice in what is eternal, even as I force myself to face what is not, to let my heart be broken again and again and again. The very least I owe my wild neighbors is a willingness to witness their struggle, to compensate for their losses in every way I can, and to speak on their behalf about all the ways I can’t.”

Here’s a video about the differences between toads and frogs and how you can protect them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF0EWfbevrM

Feel free to share this blog post with your friends. Let’s create ripples of hope and positive changes for the New Year.