Hi Sean,
I wish I was in Melbourne so I could come along, sounds like a great talk!
On the Orange-bellied Parrot topic, I too was surprised about the lack of
response, but on thinking about it, perhaps the lack of response was for two
reasons. The first is that this is hardly news to most birders - despite
the valiant efforts of conservation organisations OBPs have continued to
decline and at some point they will reach a tipping point and no longer be
sustainable in the wild. The fact that this tipping point may arrive this
or next year is extremely sad, but I guess not really unexpected. The other
reason is possibly that of complete inability to act on this news - at no
point has anyone said "they might not go extinct if we do something". Is
there something we can do? As I understand we have learned a lot about
mainland habitat requirements for the species through a project spearheaded
by Birds Australia. Possibly some habitat restoration/conservation work
could help slow or reverse the decline? If people have a concrete action
they can take to help, it may generate more discussion?
Regards,
Chris
On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 12:44 PM, SeanDooley <> wrote:
> Hello all, as this is a free gig, I assume it is of a non-commercial
> nature!
>
> I am speaking at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in
> Melbourne at 12:45 this coming Thursday (6th May). It is part of a series
> called Lunchbox/Soapbox where authors get to talk on a topic of their
> choosing.
>
> The Wheeler Centre (named after philanthropists Maureen and Tony, not the
> late birder Roy) have been gracious enough to give up a slot to this author
> to talk on birds.
>
> The title of my talk is "Hands up who wants to die? The fate of endangered
> species in the new conservation regime." I think they were expecting a
> cutesy little talk about quaint birdwatchers but are instead getting my
> take
> on what is happening with the threatened species concept in this country at
> the moment. To their credit, the Centre have expressed strong delight that
> I
> am taking a more provocative approach.
>
> I will also be talking about the recent announcement from Peter Garrett
> that
> the Orange-bellied Parrot is on the verge of extinction. I am surprised at
> the lack of response to this on Birding-aus. I suspect that this is because
> the language of the press release was rather benign, but read the statement
> carefully, and this issue is very, very serious. This bird is so close to
> exticntion that if anyone wants to see it in the wild, I would suggest
> making plans to look for it this year, or next at the latest. Unless
> something miraculous happens, there will be very few, if any left beyond
> then.
>
> The Wheeler Centre is at the State Library of Victoria, entrance off Little
> Lonsdale Street. For more details check out
> http://wheelercentre.com/calendar/event/sean-dooley/
>
> Hopefully I can get a decent crowd to shopw the literati of Melbourne that
> birds and conservation do generate a strong interest within the community.
>
> Cheers, Sean Dooley
>
>
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