Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.
Interpretation
Birds serve as a warning sign for the health of our environment and, by extension, our own well-being.
This quote highlights the role of birds as environmental indicators. It suggests that the health and behavior of bird populations reflect the state of ecosystems. When birds face challenges, it signals that the environment is suffering, and this can soon impact human life as well. Essentially, it serves as a reminder of our interconnectedness within the natural world.
In practice
In a speech about climate change, one might say, 'As Roger Tory Peterson wisely noted, birds are indicators of the environment.'
Birds ... are sensitive indicators of the environment, a sort of "ecological litmus paper," ... The observation and recording of bird populations over time lead inevitably to environmental awareness and can signal impending changes.
The truth of the matter is, the birds could very well live without us, but many -- perhaps all -- of us would find life incomplete, indeed almost intolerable without the birds.
The philosophy that I have worked under most of my life is that the serious study of natural history is an activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect of a person's life. It ultimately makes people protective of the environment in a very committed way. It is my opinion that the study of natural history should be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.
Birding, after all, is just a game. Going beyond that is what is important.
The ocean is an object of no small terror.
It's easy for people in an air-conditioned room to continue with the policies of destruction of Mother Earth. We need instead to put ourselves in the shoes of families in Bolivia and worldwide that lack water and food and suffer misery and hunger.
It's very important that we keep these special, wild places. It defines the United States. Imagine our country without our national parks and our monuments. Here in California, imagine if you didn't have in Southern Cal the Channel Islands or the great Highway 1, Big Sur up to Point Reyes up to the Redwood country.
Mathematics are well and good but Nature keeps dragging us around by the nose.
When we settled our country, the dark forest was considered in some ways evil and something that you needed to plow or, later, bulldoze. We now have a new understanding of the interconnectedness of ecosystems and the need for bird flyways and why all species matter.
Sleep, rest of nature, O sleep, most gentle of the divinities, peace of the soul, thou at whose presence care disappears, who soothest hearts wearied with daily employments, and makest them strong again for labour!
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