(Hit on image to enlarge)Gimleteye has taught me how to read and connect. You read one story and then you read another and you think about how they link or do not link together. Two stories did link quite nicely.
The Herald reported today Common Florida birds in decline and Endangered Species: Judge's endangered species ruling aids builders.
So on the one hand we have the South Florida Homebuilders Association trying to fight endangered species rulings and on the other we have Audubon (doing counts with the US Geological Society) saying that some species of common birds, not endangered birds, are declining up to 82%. The article on common bird decline says:
Destruction of wetlands is shutting out the rail. Same goes for the little blue heron, which lays its blue eggs in nests in freshwater prairies.
The dwindling of the bird populations is a signal that something is wrong, says David Anderson, executive director of Audubon of Florida. ''As the common birds go, so goes the quality of life of wildlife areas for people also,'' Anderson says.
``To deal with that, people are going to have to be much more conscious of the need to conserve -- conserving water, conserving other resources, and particularly in looking at the planning for future growth.''
The article on the builders says:
“A federal judge in Orlando has ordered a status review of almost all of Florida's endangered and threatened wildlife, a ruling developers hope will lead to lifting building restriction on lands across the state.”
I don’t know developers. People are starting to get very angry with you guys. You should lay low for awhile. If people put these two stories together, that even our common birds are in trouble you are going to look quite heartless to all of us.
Now here in Gimleteye style, I will link more distant stories. I again mention the Bee Colony Collapse Disorder, the Mangroves disappearing (previously reported here) and the 6,000,000 people said to have parasites in Thailand (that leads to liver cancer) from eating raw fish: Worms in Asian fish tied to liver cancer. Sushi eaters take note and take note we are going to be pouring reuse water on our wetlands in the not too distant future.
As the Buffalo Springfield song says:
"There’s something happening here, What It is ain’t exactly clear.”
P.S. The newspaper had the bird story front and center. Online I couldn’t find the story, it was buried.
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9 comments:
If the state and federal government would allocate a fraction of the funds they use for studies and re-studies they launch to justify "doing business as normal" in the interim we'd be well on our way to solving many of our growth-conservation problems....look that population is no longer on the brink of extinction...so let's start killing it off again. Good plan your honor.
No lack of $hitbyrd developers and lobbyists though.
Another example of exotics displacing the native fauna.
Hahahahah..... good one. Both comments are true and great. Thanks!
It is sad. I used to see red birds, mocking birds and blue jays in my trees... Now I see peacocks and doves.
Flooded housing market, dying habitats, time to halt all new construction!
The Asian Fish story does not link. Print the addresses as back-up.
thanks i fixed the link. fish worm story...
Excellent commentary from Genius of Despair. My husband and I have kayaked all over the Everglades and the Florida Keys for almost twenty years, and we have noticed that the disappearance of birds we used to see in great numbers all the time coincides with the uncontrolled development that has besieged South Florida in the past few years. Of special notice is the near extinction of the beautiful roseate spoonbill, a bird that has become progressively difficult to spot in our trips.
When are we going to stop raping our environment and destroying our animal populations?
More Links in a Chain
Something Fishy in Asia I
From the NYTimes Sunday op ed page , 3 fish stories, including this one :
Op-Ed Contributor
Catfish With a Side of Scombroid
By TARAS GRESCOE
Published: July 15, 2007
The FDA is able to inspect only a small portion of 6million plus tons with 85 inspectors. “In May, 48 seafood shipments from China were rejected. According to the nonprofit group Food and Water Watch, of the 860,000 separate seafood shipments imported into the United States, a mere 1.34 percent were physically inspected and only 0.59 percent ever made it into a lab for more rigorous testing. To put this in perspective: if the F.D.A. were responsible for inspecting that 108-story tower of shrimp, they would barely make it past the second floor before calling it quits.”
And if you think reuse water here is an issue: “…China’s stunning embrace of the blue revolution has clearly come at a cost. Water shortages and pollution are endemic in China — only 45 percent of the population has access to sewage-treatment facilities — so to raise millions of pounds of disease-prone fish to harvest size, China has had to lay on the chemicals…”
We are importing our fish from Asia and killing out own…
From the Washington Post, part 4 of its series on Dick Cheney, aptly titled “the Angler” (something here fishy too II)
Leaving No Tracks
by Jo Becker and Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 27, 2007; Page A01
Cheney’s stealth end run of the EPA regarding a few endangered votes among Oregon’s cattle ranchers resulted in salmon fish kills in the tens of thousands when low water levels at the dam prompted an appeal to open the flood gates. This was accomplished when the pre-existing science got a vp sponsored “second opinion.”
“When the lead biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service team critiqued the science academy's report in a draft opinion objecting to the plan, the critique was edited out by superiors and his objections were overruled, he said. The biologist, Michael Kelly, who has since quit the federal agency, said in a whistle-blower claim that it was clear to him that "someone at a higher level" had ordered his agency to endorse the proposal regardless of the consequences to the fish.
Months later, the first of an estimated 77,000 dead salmon began washing up on the banks of the warm, slow-moving river. Not only were threatened coho dying -- so were chinook salmon, the staple of commercial fishing in Oregon and Northern California. State and federal biologists soon concluded that the diversion of water to farms was at least partly responsible.
Fishermen filed lawsuits and courts ruled that the new irrigation plan violated the Endangered Species Act. Echoing Kelly's objections, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit observed that the 10-year plan wouldn't provide enough water for the fish until year nine. By then, the 2005 opinion said, "all the water in the world" could not save the fish, "for there will be none to protect." In March 2006, a federal judge prohibited the government from diverting water for agricultural use whenever water levels dropped beneath a certain point.
Last summer, the federal government declared a "commercial fishery failure" on the West Coast after several years of poor chinook returns virtually shut down the industry, opening the way for Congress to approve more than $60 million in disaster aid to help fishermen recover their losses. That came on top of the $15 million that the government has paid Klamath farmers since 2002 not to farm, in order to reduce demand.
It’s All How You Read the Fortune Cookie
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