Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 11:25:05 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Denise Ryan Subject: A Naturalist's View MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Just a point of order here in singing to the choir. When you call the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by the name of ANWR you are helping to further distance the American Serengeti from the reality that this place is a WILDLIFE REFUGE. It will be far easier for the Senate to vote to drill in a place called ANWR than in a place called a WILDLIFE REFUGE. Some less informed people might even get this ANWR confused with Anwar al-Sadat, former Egyptian President and Nobel Prize winner. I remembered his name from my youth (yep, I was just a grade school kid in the 70ies), and when I first heard ANWR I quietly wondered why we were in a debate about drilling in the Middle East. Anyway, I think you see my point. I believe there is still hope for saving the Arctic Refuge. I highly recommend reading the article "Fool's Gold in Alaska" by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins. You can read it on-line at http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20010701faessay4995/amory-b-lovins-l-hunter-lo vins/fool-s-gold-in-alaska.html The article intelligently explains how the oil in the Arctic Refuge is not economically recoverable, and even if oil prices soared, the laws of supply and demand would continue to change the market such that the oil would continue to be uneconomical due to greater efficiencies of better technology that would result from such a rise in prices. The article explains the reasoning better, so it is really worth a read. The sad fact of the matter is that the Alaska Congressional Delegation and their allies know that the oil is not economically recoverable and are using this as a way to squash the environmental movement and to get re-elected. That may be the paranoid reasonings of the environmental community, but that is what I am privy to on a daily basis. If it is true, it is very sad that all of this time, money and energy is being used to fight for what seems to be the Oil Interests vendetta against enviros. On a lighter note, you may enjoy a cartoon movie that was created by a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle demonstrating how drilling for oil in the arctic will benefit caribou. I highly recommend it for a good laugh. http://www.sfgate.com/comics/fiore/ Best Regards to All and happy birding! Denise Ryan Washington, DC -----Original Message----- From: Jerry and Laura Tarbell [mailto:birdersforever@EROLS.COM] Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 8:23 AM To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Introduced Birds - A Naturalist's View 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 ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================