This good news is shamelessly copied from this week’s TMQ column by Gregg Easterbrook (because sharing is caring)-
When “Tweet” Means Something Else: Half a century ago, Rachel Carson’s famed book “Silent Spring” predicted the extinction of North American bird life — thus a silent spring, without chirping. Now the New York Times warns the ever-rising North American bird population is an increasing hazard to aviation.
Carson’s predictions were wrong because her work helped inspire environmental reforms that prevented the calamity she foresaw. This dramatically hit home a few days ago when a bald eagle — a species close to extinction in the contiguous 48 states a generation ago — soared over my suburban Washington, D.C., home. Not only was the eagle itself impressive, but even its shadow was impressive.
The best gauge of bird numbers is the Audubon Society’s annual census, conducted during the Christmas season since 1900. The most recent Audubon bird count for Pennsylvania, Carson’s home state, found “a record 209 species,” along with highest-ever numbers for bald eagles, sandhill cranes and black vultures, “exceptionally high totals” of many birds, and declines for only a few, including American kestrels. Some sharp-eyed Pennsylvanian observed a Ross’s goose, the sort of moment on which birding reputations are made.
The big factor in bird population numbers is assumed to be declining releases of toxic chemicals, down about 40 percent since 1988. (Diveinto the data.) Declining toxins are probably a reason cancer deaths are down. Greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, but most other environmental indicators — declining smog and acid rain, improving water quality and forest health — have been positive for decades. Regardless, voters tell pollsters they think the environment is getting worse. If misconceptions rule on issues like bird populations and air quality, where the evidence is all around us, how will the nation ever to come to grips with abstractions like the federal debt?
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