America is Ecotone

[Taverner]

An ecotone is a transition area between two adjacent but different patches of landscape, such as forest and grassland...

The word ecotone was coined from a combination of eco(logy) plus -tone, from the Greek tonos or tension – in other words, a place where ecologies are in tension.

This is America. A place where there are the rational ("Global warming is a reality") and the irrational ("Global warming is a myth.")

There are those who place reason, science and evidence as the ultimate authority ("The mountains of evidence prove the theory of evolution") and there are those who place a bronze age book, modified, as the ultimate authority ("We were created from dust/blood clot/nothing from a god, to whom we should submit to unconditionally.")


There are those who see us all as passengers on the same planet, hurtling through time and space, together. There are those who see themselves as the only manifestation of sentience.

This is ecotone - the "DMZ" if you will, between habitats. Between cultures.

A common ecotone is the reed bed, which forms on the banks of rivers, living off of nutrients from the river, and helping the trees further inland.

Another common ecotone is the beach, a lifeless patch of sand, dividing the sea life from the life inland.

Which will we be?

[Fumesucker]

1. Anyone who has actually spent much time at the beach knows it's not lifeless..

There's a large array of lifeforms that spend at least some time on the beach, everything from sandpipers to crabs.

[Taverner]

2. Yeah - I know - mess with my analogy will ya!

Yes, I know there is lots of life