Abbey Powell is throwing numbers around like a presidential candidate… $5 Billion?  With a B??  Who keeps track of that number?  This paper, which appears to be written by smart people from the Nature Conservancy doing actual research, puts the annual costs @ $1 Billion… so not insignificant.  The paper also describes the sting and it also sounds significant…  So Mark and Abbey best be careful about where they step…

The silhouette of Mark in Panel one makes him appear to be spastic, or at least reacting to the cost of the RIFA in modern society…   or perhaps he stepped on a mound and is too stoic to admit it…

…or rather it appears that Mark is reacting to yet another natural obstackle– a ravine that looks like he could jump across in his sleep… <<yawn>>