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RE: Scottish Seabird Disaster Article

Subject: RE: Scottish Seabird Disaster Article
From: "Martyn Stewart" <>
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004 17:52:35 -0700
Hear, Hear, well said Chuck!

Martyn

Martyn Stewart
Bird and Animal Sounds Digitally Recorded at:
http://www.naturesound.org
N47.65543   W121.98428
Redmond. Washington. USA
Make every Garden a wildlife Habitat!

425-898-0462

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Bragg 
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 2:43 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Scottish Seabird Disaster Article

At 04:17 PM 8/1/2004 -0400, Walter Knapp wrote:

>> I think it should help to change the minnds of any sceptics of global
warming.
>
>It's a great leap from the seabird problem to that. Remember, these
>seabirds have got along fine through many ice ages and the following
>global warmings.

        And it is also true that bird populations can recover quickly from
short-term disasters. The observation that seabirds "have got along fine" i=
s
a look back at multi-thousand year trends and we don't know (obviously) wha=
t
happened each and every year.
        However, I agree that this one year for the seabirds proves nothing=
.
The article mentions past overfishing as being responsible for breeding
failures before, but not this year. How do they know? People want quick
explanations, and determining whether past overfishing has led to a
permanent population crash, or whether there is a 30-year population cycle
(eg Monterey sardines), or whether it is global warming, will take time.
        The problem is that there will not be proof of global warming (if i=
t
exists) until it's too late. There will never be proof that global warming
does not exist. And either way, there will always be doubt about how much
man is a factor. BUT - it makes no sense to pour greenhouse gases into the
air when we don't know their effect. That's an experiment with a 99-1
risk/reward ratio. It makes it doubly idiotic when you consider that for al=
l
of us not in the extractive energy industry it would be much less costly to
burn less fuel. People are just effing crazy.
        (/rant off)

        -- Chuck


=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Chuck Bragg, Pacific Palisades, CA
Membership Chair
Newsletter Editor
Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society
www.smbas.org
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




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Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
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