Taking Action On Climate Change Helps Birds Now
We would know, because we鈥檙e doing it every day.
We were hardly a hundred words into Jonathan Franzen鈥檚 about climate change and conservation when we suddenly found 探花精选 taking all kinds of flak about , of all things. As though doing research on the topic and taking steps to do something about it might somehow be bad for birds.
By the time we got to the end, our confusion had turned to incredulity. Just what exactly was this man trying to say?
Franzen鈥檚 flawed logic leads him to believe that people can鈥檛 work to reduce the sources of climate pollution while protecting the birds and places they love at the same time. That鈥檚 not our experience here at 探花精选鈥攆ar from it. Our members can walk and chew gum at the same time.
To make his point, Franzen incorrectly interprets the words of a Minnesota . Franzen misquotes Williams as saying that if global warming is such a threat to birds, why should anyone care about a few thousand killed by the ? Franzen launches from this to say, 鈥淲hat upset me was how a dire prophecy like 探花精选鈥檚 could lead to indifference toward birds in the present.鈥
His reaction is baffling, and it simply doesn鈥檛 square with our experience: Our climate science has created a wave of energy鈥攏ot indifference!鈥攖hat is moving thousands of our members from coast to coast to take personal and collective action. They understand what Franzen apparently does not: That we need to save birds today and take action to secure their future, as well as our own.
As far as conservation in the now, Franzen epically fails to mention that the Vikings story was in response to a of national activism brought forth by鈥攜ou guessed it鈥攖he 探花精选. He also overlooks all the bird-saving going on in his part-time home state of California. Just year before last, we successfully took on the National Rifle Association to that was killing Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, California Condors and a host of other birds.
Our work is just as strong elsewhere: Along the East Coast, are for endangered Piping Plovers returning to nest. On the Gulf Coast, 探花精选 has worked tirelessly to from BP鈥檚 Deepwater Horizon spill. In eastern Washington, we are , gathering data that will help us understand what land is critical to maintain as habitat. And speaking of habitat, we鈥檙e working nationwide to identify and preserve . And while we鈥檙e at it, let鈥檚 add , , , , , , , , , and our extensive fighting to make sure that renewable energy is sited properly to avoid unnecessary impacts on our birds.
And really that鈥檚 just the beginning. Seriously, we can go on all day.
We managed to do all this while also . Any decent conservation organization has to. Because there isn鈥檛 a difference between old-fashioned bird conservation and this new-fangled climate change bird conservation鈥攊t鈥檚 all the same thing.
David Yarnold is President and CEO of the 探花精选. Garrison Frost is 's director of marketing and communications.
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