Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 08:23:09 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jerry and Laura Tarbell Subject: Re: Introduced Birds - A Naturalist's View MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Frank, As one who is in the process of learning all this now, let me just add that modern man is alienated from nature. The few who even make the attempt to understand the world and how it works are in a very small minority and they often end up, as you just did, preaching to each other. The great majority of the people on the planet have little knowledge or concern for what we are doing to the ecosystems and processes that govern the Earth. Unfortunately some of the most ignorant get themselves elected to positions that make it even harder for the few to overcome their ignorance. W has become quite popular, as do most presidents who serve in a time of crisis. Unfortunately the crisis of the environment is reaching a stage where it should surpass our other crises in importance. As we all know, this administration will go down as one of the more tragic that have served against the better wishes of the educated few and the environment it wishes to protect. Rather than lead us, logically, away from our oil dependence, W will lead us further into the abyss of economics gone wrong. ANWR will be sacrificed, needlessly, to our desire to find "our own oil". What we really need is to find ways to live without oil. Unfortunately (am I using that word too much here?) that won't be done until we are literally down to the last drop of it. Reasonable estimates give us maybe 100 more years of oil-dependent economy. Hence it's not our problem is it? Let W's grandkids solve it. Anybody want to buy a horse? Jerry Tarbell ----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Boyle To: Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 2:26 AM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Introduced Birds - A Naturalist's View > Interestingly enough, in regards to exotic or introduced species' > becoming "agricultural pests", keep in mind that the same rationale was > used to exterminate the Carolina Parakeet during the 18th and 19th > century. Sadly, it seems that if a bird or mammal or insect or any > other living thing, for that matter, native or not, does not fit in with > our own short-sighted and often outright irrational human "needs", we > eradicate it from the face of the earth. It was proven many years after > the last Carolina parakeet died in captivity that in fact the impact of > the birds on agriculture was minimal, at best. Far more damaging to the > farmers were their own practices; monocultures that could not stand up > to disease and infestation, and poor crop rotations that depleted all > the minerals out of the soil in a few growing seasons. > > I find the same argument being used in the deep South today to kill > hundreds of thousands of Red-Winged Blackbirds that are blamed for > eating the rice crop (among others) in Louisiana. Will we ever learn? > I think not. > > I for one am sick and tired of the human animal placing itself > outside of the environment (we expend enormous energy and millions of > dollars fighting natural fires every year to save what?????) and the > sooner we fade away from the scene the better, in my humble opinion. > Not that I am against us succeeding as a species, but our track record > is pretty dismal in the short time that our "civilizations" have been > here. Sorry for preaching to the choir, but... > > > *********************** > Frank Boyle > Laurel, MD > ravenfrank@earthlink.net > *********************** > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================