Boccaccio's Bats

From Boccaccio's The DECAMERON, " It is a wondrous tale that I have to tell: If I were not one of the many people who saw it with their own eyes, I would scarcely have dared to believe it, let alone to write it down, even if I had heard it from a completely trustworthy person. "

The bat plague is going on larger unnoticed and yet if it remains unstoppable, the consequences are truly grim. As the death toll rises, the amazing eco-work these misunderstood creatures can no longer do, will take the modern world by surprise. And yes! We take so much for granted in the here and now. We sneak many a wrongful environmental act and think it goes by with less than a response. But it has impact and it is noticed.

Who has patience for this story? Not the stuff people on the street really want to know. Too much anxiety already surrounds us - our financial world is crashing and our unknown next president looms on the horizon -- but we are tethered to an animal kingdom we think we are no longer members of. And shall be till the end of time. We cannot be so smug. We cannot want our bland, well-behaved lawns and our gardens of meek flowers so weed-free that we take the world down.

Scientists are taking a hard look at the role pesticides might be playing as the bats are felled by disease. And, interestingly, Prospect Park in Brooklyn has turned into a safe haven for fragile populations of bats. The lucky ones. Here, park management eschews pesticide use and has returned indigenous plants and trees to park environs.

If the industrious bat vanishes, the insect world will lose its cool and what follows is crop annihilation and virulent forms of disease. Let not our human arrogance to push nature aside take us to this place.

As Boccaccio wrote in Florence, 1348 - "How many noble men, how many beautiful ladies, how many light-hearted youth, who were such that Galen, Hippocrates or Asclepious would declare them the healthiest of all humans, had breakfast in the morning with their relatives, companions, or friends, and had dinner that evening in another world with their ancestors!"

Disease can move like a torrent and we have to obtain the figure-out wisdom plus the willingness to change behaviors. Tall order.