Expectations diminish with each generation
From Broadleaf, the magazine from the Woodland Trust
“The UK now ranks among the most nature-impoverished nations on Earth - but most of us, happy to find a solitary robin in our garden, are unable to grasp how bereft of wildlife our country has become. Shifting baselines mean we yearn for the abundance we experienced during childhood, without realising what was already lost by then - so expectations diminish with each generation.”
I’ve read this before, and every time I come across it, it makes me stop and think. It’s true for nature, and most other things as well. We can only compare our experiences without our own lifetimes. What feels plentiful or poor is so very subjective. I guess that’s where citizen science comes in.