Opinion Editorial August, 2024: Come back to Me
The title track from Enya's last album, Dark Sky Island is a masterpiece. Seemingly fantastical, it is a song about a real island. Situated off the northwest coast of France, cars are banned on Sark. It is officially recognized as a dark sky community to help preserve its lack of nocturnal light pollution from its population of a few hundred people.
While not officially recognized as such, Mabu, in northern Mozambique, is also a dark sky island — it is situated at high altitude and nobody lives there. Following a recent expedition with scientists, a BBC article last month called it a "secret sky island."
That's because its existence was unknown outside the people who hunt there until twenty years ago. Since then, it has been found to harbor many unique species. That is not surprising. It comes about for the same reasons that Charles Darwin observed on the Galápagos Islands almost two hundred years ago.
Of course, many species that once called Mabu home have gone extinct. Others are threatened by climate change, hunting, logging and mining.
The lyrical refrain from Dark Sky Island evokes Roma Ryan's poetic notion of the sea lamenting giving up its waves to the island's shore: "Come back to me. Come back to me."
Once extinct, species do not come back. But we don't have to go to one of the world's most inaccessible places to see the kind of threat Mabu is facing. Last month, parts of Oregon, California and Jasper, Alberta were devastated by wildfires.
A few years ago, I was in Iceland. On that sunny summer day, I saw the two young girls in this month's photo. They were having fun while the calm waves of a North Atlantic Ocean harbor rocked their small boats around on the water. Using the tiny sails, they were able to navigate away from each other and back together at will. They were playing a simple game of come back to me.
If indigenous people have taught us one thing recently, it is that we must change our ways and soon. (Only two days ago we learned that global methane emissions are rising faster than they have in decades.) Otherwise, by the time these girls have grandchildren, it may no longer be possible to play come back to me.
The good news is that, in Mozambique at least, people are beginning to listen. Steps are now being taken to protect Mabu. That last science expedition confirmed that Namuli apalis (a very rare bird species) has not yet been driven to extinction. Logging and mining will soon be banned in Mabu. It's just a start, of course. But, as we see more of these projects succeed, perhaps we won't have to lament with "Come back to me. Come back to me."
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