Quite by chance I picked up a copy of the Guardian newspaper this weekend. There was a really thought provoking article in it, written by the novelist Margaret Atwood. It is all about the decline of birds and how we ignore that decline at our peril. It's full of interesting, yet horrifying, statistics but there is a glimmer of hope for the precious albatross - (my own personal crusade) .The report writes how trends can be turned around with ridiculously small amounts of money... 'but it's a matter of time, and extinction is forever. Human beings, it seems, are like little children, who never quite believe that 'all gone' means there isn't any more, at all, ever.' (The whole article can be read here - its says link is broken but just click on google search)
Monday, 11 January 2010
A wing and a prayer
Quite by chance I picked up a copy of the Guardian newspaper this weekend. There was a really thought provoking article in it, written by the novelist Margaret Atwood. It is all about the decline of birds and how we ignore that decline at our peril. It's full of interesting, yet horrifying, statistics but there is a glimmer of hope for the precious albatross - (my own personal crusade) .The report writes how trends can be turned around with ridiculously small amounts of money... 'but it's a matter of time, and extinction is forever. Human beings, it seems, are like little children, who never quite believe that 'all gone' means there isn't any more, at all, ever.' (The whole article can be read here - its says link is broken but just click on google search)
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7 comments:
That's some article - must print it out and read it at my leisure as I find lengthy reading on screen not the same as on paper!
Trouble is nobody actually takes any notice do they? Rachael Carson in Silent Spring way back in 1962 said
"For each of us, as for the robin in Michigan, or the salmon in the Miramichi, this is a problem of ecology, of interrelationships, of interdependence. We poison the caddis flies in the stream and the salmon runs dwindle and die. . . . We spray our elms and following springs are silent of robin song, not because we sprayed the robins directly but because the poison traveled, step by step, through the now familiar elmleaf -earthworm-robin cycle. These are matters of record, observable, part of the visible world around us. They reflect the web of life-or death-that scientists know as ecology."
But did anyone listen? There are a few small voices crying in the wilderness but will it be enough? I certainly hope so but to listen to my American friend when she was over visiting earlier this year you could easily despair as presumably she isn't the only one who thinks as she does!
Jane,
I knew we were sisters under the skin! It's like we're treating the symptoms but not the cause and I find it quite frustrating. I know I can't make much of a difference on my own but I try to do my bit and I now know you're out there too. Good to have a kindred spirit on the team! Lesley x
I adore nature and love to conserve it! i read all the book like silent spring and the Gaia books they are very interesting. An inspiring artical!
Lucy xx
I read the article - (and in fact cut out the pictures for future collages). I always feel so impotent when I read about and witness the way we are destroying our world. Birds are our direct link with the natural world even in the centre of our cities. I started watching birds before I went to school, my "Eye Spy" bird book always on the kitchen window sill. Now my binoculars are - upstairs and down. (Goodness knows what the neighbours think) My love of birds is down to my mother, a country girl who loved bird watching all her life. I was so concerned about the diminishing numbers of sparrows in my urban garden I joined the BTO garden birdwatch scheme to monitor the species in my garden - and due to constant feeding I now have a small colony of house sparrows regularly visiting. Oh dear I'm whittering or should that be twittering on, but a love of nature is intergral to my life and my family's and enriches our lives and it would come before my love of art if I had to make the choice.
Jill, Lucy and Jane - for taking the time to read the article and make such specific comments - thank you, thank you, thank you. Lesley.
I also have the binoculars always ready (usually up on the bathroom windowsill). Not only looking for birds but we are lucky enough to see deer sometimes. I so rarely see house sparrows, VERY noticeable by their absence and such a sad state of affairs
I read this article and just had to comment on your post, and the comments others have made here. There are so many people out there with such a deep love of, and connection to, nature. I so agree with what Margaret Atwood says, and hope that this year we can learn some lessons and make some real progress in halting the period of extinction we find ourselves in.
When we were having a clearout recently, we came across an old nature booklet that was my husband's when he was little. It is a book of nature facts. In it, was a small piece on the rarest land mammal at that time - it is one of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen - the Thylacine. The book is quite old, so I looked it up on the internet, and found that it was declared extinct in the 1960s. It makes me so sad that the shortsightedness and selfishness of humans means that I (and everyone else!) have missed out on being able to see this beautiful creature.
And what about the not so glamorous ones, like the insects - who knows what vital part they all play? We probably won't know until they are gone.
I wouldn't want to believe that there is no hope that things will get better though! We can all do our little bit in the way we live our lives, and the choices we make as citizens and consumers.
Phew rant over!
Did you see the programme about the Albatross which Carole Thatcher presented a few years back?
Best wishes
Dan
PS. We have a small colony of house sparrows here, which I feed and pamper generally. Their numbers have decreased over the past few years too, though generally we have a wonderful selection of feathered visitors.
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