Rock Snot

Now we have rock snot or didymo in our precious Mad River!(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymosphenia_geminata).  Darn.

While each of us in our own backyard is facing something similar in our waterways such as zebra mussels, physteria or just plain pollution, I am sadden by the presence of this pesky diatom and the thought that my wife was just swimming in the river right before the big announcement.

I am sure that there some that will write all of this off as a natural phenomenon. And maybe they are right: It is human nature.  These invasions and degradations are the results of human carelessness, plain and simple.  Our rush to globalization has made us vulnerable to invasive species the second leading causing of species extinction.  Our embrace of fossil fuel has changed the climatic playing field and now these species and even the chemical reactions fostered by pollutants are living in an environment that is decidedly more friendly to them. 

We all need freshwater to survive, but we will not have it in the future if we keep treating it and the systems associated with the water-cycle with respect.  Get to know your watershed and see what you can do to return it to a fully functioning system.