Today is World Environment Day. The United Nations established the day and informs us it’s the most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. It strikes me as odd the theme for this year’s World Environment Day is the illegal trade in wildlife. Themes like this are woefully inadequate in the face of today’s pressing crises, amounting to little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Yes, our world’s biodiversity is critical, but illegal trade is a tiny fraction of even that problem. The real problem is the juggernaut of never-ending expansion in the scale of the human footprint. We are laying siege, not just to wildlife, but to the entirety of our “environment.” . . .

Sunday is Mothers Day, but troubling economic news makes it difficult to celebrate motherhood this holiday. There are too few mothers! The most recent alarming news: Teen birth rates in the U.S. are dropping precipitously.

“Fewer Babies Having Babies” proclaimed the Newsweek headline last week. According to the Center for Disease Control, teen births declined over 40% from 2006 to 2014. Some might think this is good news. Teens, and their parents, come to mind. After all, teens are ill prepared to become parents, and unplanned pregnancies often lead to an unexpected round two of parenthood for ambushed grandparents. For teens, parenthood interferes with attending submarine races, prom night, and finishing school, not to mention Spring break in Fort Lauderdale. . . .