Ir WAS about a year ago that I ordered frog legs ata restaurant. Even as I gave the order, some- thing was nagging at the back of my mind. Hadn't 1 heard some- thing somewhere about a decline in the frog population in {India duc to too many of them being captured and exported as food? Being fairly hyper about these matters, I asked the waiter where the frogs had come from. Nor- thern Ontario, he figured. Oh well, that must be okay, | thought. Never heard anything about any frog population declines in Canada. Yet as I chewed at the cream- soaked, chicken-tasting drumsticks later, washing them down with house red, I found I was not en- joying the meal very much, even if the meat tasted delicious. My stomach was fluttery. Sub- consciously, | knew this was a bad thing I was doing. Maybe even evil. A few weeks later, I ran into the first hard copy I’d seen on the matter, a newspaper clipping, sure enough, about scientists reporting mass frog disappearances in a whole bunch of different places around the world, India being just one of them. Canada, wouldn’t you know, was another. Just in the last year, the most . common species of frog in Ajberta s8 has vanished, completely gone. : At a recent meeting in Philadelphia, 500 biological scien- tists attending an emergency “Frog Summit’? compared notes and found to their horror that frogs, toads and salamanders around the world are declining -disastrously, in most cases be- tween 50 and 90 per cent, with three full extinctions in the last year alone. eo Nobody can say for certain Nous what the precise cause of the sud- - den expiration of these amphi- bians is, but water pollution, pesticides, fertilizers, changed weather patterns, droughts and vos increased popularity at restaurant im : tables, are among them. Above “ok and beyond loom the twin spectres Set of acid rain and ozone layer Pee RECENT CONVICTIONS in North Shore courts have resulted in fines and penalties, including a one-year driving suspension, for drinking and driving NORTH VANCOUVER: Terry John Hyksa, 27, 201-531 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver (impaired, 4 - Sunday, November 18 , 1990 - Norih Shore News Dying frogs herald ecological holocaus Bob Hunter, ECOLOGIC depletion. : The truly terrifying one is the ozone layer, because if this is the common denominator, it means we are looking at a worldwide phenomenon with staggering ecological side-effects. The fact that the main ozone hole is over the Antarctic lulls those of us who live far away into thinking we are not affected by the increased ultraviolet cosmic rays breaking through from space. But the surviving ozone molecules in the atmosphere at large, rush southward to try to fill in the hole, and the bubble of ozone around the earth grows thinner everywhere. Over Canada, this has meant an eight per cent increase in our level of UV radiation exposure over the last decade: all of us, including Canadian frogs, toads and sala- manders. Amphibians are particularly sensitive to ultraviolet rays, acid rain and pollution. It is logical to assume that a deadly coincidence of all three happening at the same time is what’s decimating the frogs. But if it is the ozone layer coi- lapse that is the main cause of the die-off, it portends a vicious cycle of ramifications such as out-of- control insect populations, starv- ing fish, and streams clogged by algae. $700 fine); Michael Edwards, 19, 615 St. Georges Ave., North Van- couver (impaired, $400 fine); Steven Berry Wentland, 30, 1732 Wolfe St., North Vancouver (im- paired, $750 fine); Michael Pro- kop, 48, 205 Floralynn Cres., North Vancouver (impaired, $700 So far, even though they are now happening at the tate of two species vanishing from the face of the earth every hour, most mass extinctions have been out of sight, out of mind. But can there be anybody who has not heard a frog? Obviously, ['m not going to order frog legs again. But then, what does that say or matter? The fact is I’m probably not going to have the opportunity, because they will either have vanished or have been slapped on some .emergency endangered list and protected at an international level. Alas, in Canada, we don't have any laws prohibiting the extinction of animals, birds, fish or amphi- bians, not like the U.S., where the threat to the Spotted Owl has slammed even the mighty logging industry up against a wall. Nothing like that could happen in Canada, because we lack an Endangered Species Act, which would force government to take action to protect vanishing creatures under its jurisdiction. Qur federal government acts as though there was only one vanishing species to protect, namely itself. I must admit I get a Tittle ill thinking that | had a direct hand — and teeth — in the destruction of Planet Earth’s frogs, but that is the inescapable truth. It is quite useless to offer the excuse that I didn’t know there was a problem until the damage was done; it doesn’t remedy any- thing. We are no longer talking some- thing abstract like an environmen- tal catastrophe in the future. We are talking about now, and about something we all know and love: the ribbit-ribbitt, whether singing to each other lustily or just plain gossiping, of the frogs at night, down by the streams, the creeks, the ditches, the ponds, the lakes; critters whose voices, now that I think about it, always used to go quiet just before a storm. That was an important part of what we called ‘‘the lull.” The lull, indeed. If the frogs are dying, the eco-storm can’t be far away. Motorists guilty of drinking and driving fine). WEST VANCOUVER: Jason Lawrence MacDonald, 24, 7015 Union St., Burnaby (impaired, $400 fine); William A. Ross, 58, 201-1414 West 73rd Ave., Van- couver (breathalyser refusal, $500 fine). to provide milk, bread, fruits and vegetables, etc. ...FEED THE HUNGRY IN OUR COMMUNITY ¢ $20 helps us buy a weekly bag of groceries for one family © $60 helps sustain a family for one month ¢ $720 assists that same family for a year Please help those in need. All donations are tax deductible. _ GLP AND MAIL WITH YOUR GIET TODAY rr | YES! (want to provide foad for the hungry. ' , if. $20 €1$60 0 $720 Other $ S @ Address __. ss City, Province iS Postal Code . ~~ 1 THE FOOD BANK 1650 Quebec Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6A 3L6- Diamonds for Dinner or breakfast or lunch or tea snacks appetizers Semi-Annual Sale 3 days only Nov. 22, 23, 24 25% off siorewide 9:30-5:00 Gold & McCue Jewellers ““VYour Village TJeweller’’ 985-1500 3102 Edgemont Blvd, N.Van. ALL TIRES GREATLY REDUCED!! SNOW TIRES P UNIROYAL & : HANKOOK ~