I’ve written several articles for Wildlife Conservation Magazine.
There’s a lot of bad news for print publications these days and I received some more in my inbox yesterday.
Wildlife Conservation Magazine, which is a wonderful glossy published by the Wildlife Conservation Society (which also runs the Bronx Zoo) is folding.
Shutting its doors
It’s not going to Web only.
It’s just shutting its doors.
The two most senior editors there are both taking early retirement.
I’ve written three feature stories for them, one which may never see the light of day.
And I read Wildlife Conservation Magazine from cover to cover when it comes in the mail.
My brother and his family are members of the Bronx Zoo and go there all the time.
It’s sad for me personally but more importantly for the reading public.
Losing a great outlet
Writers interested in the environment are losing a great outlet, the magazine world is losing a great magazine, and those who champion wildlife are also losing a great source of information and inspiration.
For the most part, though, I see the economic downturn as a potentially good thing for wildlife worldwide.
If fewer people are driving and fewer people are buying new cars, perhaps we as humans will start causing less pollution and environmental degradation.
If we start turning the lights off and stop throwing everything away in this throw-away-who-cares-about-the-landfills-overflowing culture, non-human animals may stop seeing the destruction of their habitat as quickly as they have been.
So much of the current environmental problems are caused by human excess, overpopulation, and an insouciant attitude about our own actions.
Our actions have consequences
We pollute, we throw away, we shit and vomit on the earth and we mistakenly believe our actions have no consequences.
My mother, a microbiologist of world renown, doesn’t care as much about humans as about bacteria. In fact, she loves all microorganisms.
Lynn Margulis is as confident that the bacteria will continue to survive as she is that we humans will pollute ourselves out of existence.
I don’t want to see that happen.
I don’t want human life to become extinct.
But I would like to see an end to these disgusting excesses. How is it that rampant greed continues, even now, during hard economic times?
So, please shut the lights off when you leave the room.
Get yourself on your bicycle or walk next time you go to work or the grocery store.
Buy your clothes used or, better yet, don’t buy any clothes at all.
If it takes an economic crisis and the folding of great magazines like Wildlife Conservation Magazine to wake us up in America, perhaps everything that’s happening to the worldwide economy is happening for a reason.
Related articles:
Rid Your Life of Plastic
The Hippos of Ayorou
99 Eco-Friendly Practices
Scott says
When will see the print industry in line for its government bailout? OK, bailouts suck and I’m kidding (mostly) but I am concerned.
Every time one of these places go under, that’s a bunch more jobs, outlets, etc. that are never coming back. The less diversity of ideas and thought we have, the dumber we get. Every day another good publication closes its doors and I don’t see it waking anyone up very much.
“Man is the strangest of all animals. It is the only one that runs faster, after it has lost its way.” — Rollo May.
Andrew Singer says
The journalism industry is getting hammered. I don’t mind magazines and newspapers going entirely to an on-line format/delivery system but no one has figured out a way to make enough money off it (from ad sales or subscriptions) to pay journalists a living wage. Adequately reporting stories (environmental, political or any subject) requires reseaching the subject, the history of the subject, the backgrounds and potential biases of interviewees and sources and sometimes legal cases, statutes, and other information. Then a good journalist must put all this info into an understandable, readable, hopefully compelling/entertaining article or report. This takes time and money. If we expect journalists and journalism to be “The 4th Estate” of government and adequately inform us about what’s happening in our world and in government, we need to find a way to pay for it.
MudslideMama says
My mom is a marine biologist, Jen! Aquatic toxicology specialty. I grew up reading this magazine, and I am so sorry to see it go. Thanks for posting this – better that I know now than later, I suppose.