Amtrak Safari

This past week, I rode Amtrak's Acela Express round-trip from New York to Boston. I really like this trip for the stint along the Connecticut coast, which runs south of I-95 right along the shore. This affords a great look at the marshes and marinas along the way (albeit an often quick look since the Acela can max out at 150 mph). And there is no shortage of the birds featured in my previous post, with numerous osprey platforms and their resident ospreys themselves lining the route.

But my return journey yesterday featured two unexpected bird sightings: The first was a large male wild turkey (a colorful "gobbler") wandering across a salt meadow. And the second was a bald eagle soaring across one of the small coves toward a perch in an old dead tree. At first, I thought I was watching another osprey. But as we drew closer, the size and coloration of the bird were unmistakable. As we raced by, I sank back into my seat with a contented smile while quietly whistling "Freedom Isn't Free" from the Team America: World Police soundtrack...

Welcome Back...

...to me, that is! I've been on the road (and on the rails, and in the air, and under sail, and even underwater) for the better part of the last month, with stops in New Hampshire, Maryland, London, and most notably the Seychelles. My Seychelles trip has given me material for at least a few posts that will follow in the coming days (Ah, who am I kidding: They'll follow in the coming weeks more likely).

But I also want to say "welcome back" to the two fine feathered friends pictured above and all of their kind. Mid-March is the time of year when ospreys return to the Northeast from their overwintering grounds in South and Central America. I look forward to their arrival with eager anticipation each year, and this past week I saw my first pair of the year. I spent three days at meetings in the amazing headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Annapolis, right on the banks of the Bay (I snapped the pair above elsewhere in the Chesapeake two years ago). A pair nesting atop a platform emerging from the marsh grasses kept me distracted as they collected sticks and twigs to build their home, and spent a fair bit of time mating as well. They also made me feel a bit better about no longer exploring the remarkable Seychelles, reminding me that my part of the world has its own wildlife treats too.

Ospreys may be my favorite type of bird. Their rivals for that prestigious title are the laughing kookaburra and the brown pelican. The osprey probably gets the nod, though, for the same reason that I officially rank Sam Adams Boston Lager above Sleeman Honey Brown and Brooklyn Lager as my favorite beer: It's the New England bird among the group of contenders and, with certain exceptions such as my devotion to the mighty Detroit Pistons, things New England tend to trump their counterparts in my personal hierarchies. But I digress...

Those birds reminded me to check the Dennis Puleston Osprey Cam (my favorite web cam, but only slightly ahead of this equally important one). This video camera is positioned over the top of an osprey platform at the mouth of the Carmans River in the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge on the South Shore of Long Island. Just before the arrival of the nesting pair using the platform, the camera is installed and begins a live 24-hour web feed of the activities in the nest. At the moment, most of the action is the birds coming and going as they build their nest, interspersed with moments of osprey love. However, before too long one bird or the other (mostly the female, but not exclusively) will remain in the nest full-time, sitting atop this year's clutch of eggs. The other bird will be off fishing, and many of their quarry will be the river herring that inspired the name of the this blog. In the years ahead, this herring run should grow tremendously thanks to a fish ladder recently installed in time for this year's alewife run. (For more observations on the importance of river herring for ospreys, check out David Gessner's book The Return of the Osprey. Gessner's follow-up book Soaring with Fidel tracking the lives of ospreys during the southern part of their migration is worth a look too.)

The osprey cam is named for the man in whose honor my job for the past four years was created, and who fought to save dwindling ospreys populations from the impacts of DDT back in the mid-1960s. Dennis Puleston was an absolutely giant figure, and one I never had the pleasure of meeting. But I have read about his extraordinary deeds, read several of his books, and met and talked to many people who knew him well and who recount through unique individual experiences with the man but with common fondness and reverence just how much he shaped their lives and our world (for a taste of these stories, go here). He traveled the world to far-flung places, and worked tirelessly to protect natural resources closer to home. There was something about my recent transition from the wonders of the Indian Ocean to re-acquaintance with the birds that defined his legacy that made me truly feel his spirit.

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

Almost two years to the day after we lost Peter Benchley, author of the bestseller Jaws and staunch marine conservationist, today we lost the actor who made Benchley's landlubbing Chief Brody come to life. Roy Scheider died today at age 75. Robert Shaw, who played the tough and eccentric Captain Quint, passed away in 1978, only three years after the film's release. So, of the actors that brought to life the three companions that set sail to hunt the hungry Carcharodon carcharias aboard the Orca, only Richard Dreyfuss, who portrayed the adventurous and nerdy Matt Hooper, remains with us.

Jaws is one of my all-time favorite movies. I love it mostly for the classic scenes aboard the Orca where three vastly different personalities squabble and bicker, but ultimately bond and come together. The hysteria the movie "caused" over sharks has far more to do with ignorance and idiocy rather than any fault of the movie itself or its message. It just took a simple fact (i.e., that sharks can be really dangerous critters) and built it up into a fantastic tale. Fear and paranoia were never called for, but that has never stopped them from overwhelming us before.

But I don't want to pontificate on Jaws and sharks right now. Instead, I want to say thank you to Roy Scheider for bringing Martin Brody to life and leaving us with an all-time great bit of cinema. Rest in peace, Chief.

At Long Last...

The campaigns have been hounding us, journalists and pundits have been inquiring and speculating, and literally millions of voters have been waiting for word of just who Running On will endorse in the Presidential campaign. Due to an agreement with MoveOn.org to hold off the announcement until their membership vote had taken place so as not to influence the outcome, the decision has remained secret. But with MoveOn having made their announcement, RO can now make ours. And our endorsement goes to...

Senator Barack Obama!

Clearly, this endorsement will change the political landscape, and lift Senator Obama's candidacy to a whole new level. The ripple effects will be felt for weeks, months, and likely years to come...

OK, perhaps the RO staff are engaging in a bit of exagerration and hyperbole here. But the excitement surrounding the Obama campaign is palpable. I have not been at his back from the outset, and the reasons for my initial reticence are poor: Would the American electorate support a black man? Would his relative youth and "inexperience" be hurdles?

With respect to the former, I realized that I was falling into the typical Democrat trap of trying to figure out what people would or wouldn't do rather than trying to pursuade others to embrace new ideas and new directions. The more supporters Senator Obama recruits, the more legitimate a vote in his favor will become. I believe his Iowa caucus victory was more important than many realize in setting a precedent.

As for the second question, all I had to do was think about Donald Rumsfeld and that fact that he was probably the single most experienced Defense Secretary our nation has seen, and yet he had been a principle architect of the greatest foreign policy blunder in our history. Experience matters, to be sure, but it can be highly overrated, or at least it needs to be weighed against other key factors as well. Furthermore, experience needs to be evaluated relative to the stage in one's career. Few have had the depth and diversity of experience as Senator Obama at a similar age.

What appeals most to me is not his mind-blowingly moving speaking ability, although that certainly plays a role. Nor is it his call for a "new" politics that is less fractured and bipartisan. In fact, in my view the right has had the wheel of the ship for nearly eight years now and have done such as monumentally bad job on just about all issues that they should voluntarily step aside, sit quietly and let someone else begin working to fix their mistakes. That is, if they had a shred of decency. They had their shot, they blew it, and I'm angry enough that I don't really want to work with them. (Fortunately, Senator Obama is more composed and rational than me, and will be able to look past the train wreck and work with those that caused it.)

What really appeals to me is his call to arms for the citizenry to get active, get involved, and help shape the country we want, rather than sitting back idly waiting for others to make promises and do the job for us. I don't think I realized this when I took the job, but one of the greatest appeals of working for a non-profit is not only effecting change on the issues I care about, but also the act itself of taking an active stand to change the world, rather than simply complaining about what others do or don't do make those changes. Everyday the staff at my organization and countless others across the country working on a range of issues are taking our local, national and global destinies into our hands.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, President Bush's advice to Americans for how to strengthen our country and make the world a better place was to "go shopping". When asked what sacrifices Americans were making or needed to make, he responded that "I think they're waiting in airport lines longer than they've ever had before (sic)." At no stage did he call for greater public service or any changes in those ways we live that exacerbate our tense relationship with the Middle East (public transportation, anyone?). Senator John McCain has called Bush out on this (not here, but it's a good piece by McCain anyway), and I have no doubt we would have heard very different things from our leadership had Senator McCain been in the White House. It was a wasted opportunity to galvanize a new ethos of serive in our nation.

Yet, ironically, the end of the Bush presidency offers another opportunity to spark this revolution. The level of dissatisfaction and, frankly, outright disgust has people ready to take the bull by the horns and re-shape our country. And Barack Obama is the one candidate who, while telling us what he will do for us, is also asking for us to do something for ourselves. And that is inspiring.

The Tangled Web

As if on cue, the New York Times published two articles the day before and the day of my MLK-inspired post. One describes the growing black market trade in fish that are caught off the African coast and sold primarily in Europe. Depleted fisheries in European waters have opened markets for fish caught overseas, but often in places where fisheries are themselves in dire straits, where fishing practices are destructive and unregulated, and where the effects of large industrial fleets compromise what could be sustainable, small-scale fisheries by coastal communities. These fisheries are prosecuted to some extent by vessels from the countries that own the resources, but more and more the harvest is taken by Chinese and European boats. This means that any economic benefit derived from these mismanaged or unmanaged fisheries does not remain in the typically impoverished countries from which the resources originate.

Not only does this illegal trade compromise the economies, communities and natural resources of Africa nations, it also is leading to illegal immigration problems for Europe itself. Deprived of their fishing livelihoods, increasing numbers of migrants from North African nations are leaving for Europe, often to take up jobs on the same heavily subsidized vessels that sail from European ports to catch African fish and bring them back for the dinner tables of Spain, Italy, France, etc. Those Africans that remain in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and elsewhere are not only unable to earn a living off fishing, but they are also deprived of a healthy and inexpensive protein source.

This has brought the United States into the picture to some extent, with exports of Atlantic herring to Nigeria growing since the mid-1990s. Herring are small, low-value fish, typically sold as bait for lobster traps or to be processed into fish meal for aquaculture or livestock feed. With higher value fish products leaving African waters in the hands of foreign vessels, herring seemingly is one of the few protein sources that is affordable. Nigerians must therefore pay American fishermen for fish while earning little or nothing off of their own fish that go overseas and line the pockets of foreigners. The inefficiency and greenhouse gas emissions required to move these fish so far from where they are caught to where they are consumed only exacerbates the environmental costs.

Coastal fisheries in Nigeria, which are small-scale and operated by locals, also suffer from petroleum pollution caused by large international companies extracting oil for use overseas and again with little to no local benefit.

This web of fisheries imports and exports, emigration/immigration, climate change and petroleum pollution is increasingly typical of complex environmental, social, economic and political interactions that entangle the globe. Sadly, it seems that often the nations causing the damage and those suffering the greatest effects are not the same. Not surprisingly, the sources of the problems often lie in wealthy, northern developed nations while the victims lie in the developing world. As nations like the United States continue to make progress in managing environmental problems on local, regional or even national scales, our greatest challenges will lie in expanding environmental management to an international and global scale.

Black, White and Green

I write my first post of 2008 on the eve of my own birthday, but reflecting on the far more important birthday occurring today. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is one of the most singularly courageous, visionary and inspirational men in history, and would have celebrated his 79th birthday on this day had he not been taken from us by the hand of cowardice, hatred and ignorance. The civil rights battle is far from over in the United States – indeed, one need look no further than our failure to give gay American the same rights as others – but I think Dr. King would see progress in the decades since his work and his untimely death. The fact that the leading Democratic Presidential candidate is a black man says something positive about where we are now.

Another important development since Dr. King’s death has been the fusion of civil rights with environmentalism in the environmental justice movement. Although its roots go back to Thoreau, Teddy, Muir and Leopold (actually, it really goes back to the tribes that peopled the country before colonization), the environmental movement hit an upward inflection point shortly after Dr. King’s death in the late 60s and early 70s. The environmental justice movement has been a more recent evolution. Briefly, the concept of environmental justice argues that environmental impacts should not be felt disproportionately by minorities, low income communities, or other socio-economically disenfranchised components of society. The crusade of Erin Brockovich, made famous in the film starring Julia Roberts, was in essence an EJ fight. And many consequences of global climate change will be disproportionately felt by the poor and minorities. The devastation Hurricane Katrina imposed upon the poor, black districts of New Orleans was a recent and poignant example (note: while no storm is solely a result of climate change, there is little doubt that our warming planet is causing or will soon cause stronger and more frequent big storms like Katrina, and its impacts were exacerbated by loss of coastal wetlands that would have buffered some of the large waves).

Yesterday, one day before Dr. King’s birthday, the bombing of the Serena Hotel in Kabul stood in stark contrast to his message of hope and peace. Like too many Americans, I have embarrassingly become somewhat numbed to the continued violence in the Middle East. But I took notice of this incident because a friend that I admire greatly was in the hotel during the attack, and narrowly escaped with her life. She works on women’s rights in Afghanistan, and amazingly will continue to do so after the horrors she faced. Like the days and weeks following 9/11, moments like this cause me to re-think my own field in a larger, or at least different, context. And I am certainly not the first to do so. In parallel with the advent of the EJ movement, has been the growth of a related but distinct field that examines the implications of environmental degradation for global security and stability. In many cases it is clear that water shortages, desertification, devastating storms, decreased agricultural productivity, depleted fisheries, and other environmental problems can result in social problems ranging from unemployment to outright war.

Environmental justice and the intersection of environmental protection and global stability have not been prominent themes in the 19 posts preceding this one (although they have not been completely absent). But I will strive to pick up these important topics more in 2008 and beyond.

Who's Your Daddy?

Environmentally speaking, that is. After all, we know that the Earth is our collective Mother. But who is mom's counterpart in looking after our fundamental biological needs?

If you were to look for the answer in many very old native cultures around the world, you might decide that the answer is the sun. Whether it is the Egyptian Re, the Navajo Tsohanoai, the Hindu Surya, or numerous others, the Sun is often seen as a protector and patriarch.

Should we feel good about that? After all, the Sun only sticks around half the time at best, is terribly inconsistent from month to month in providing us with heat and light, and seems to pick favorites (just ask an Ecuadorean and Swede if they feel that "Dad" treats them equally). And to top it all off, we know that it's only a matter of time before he abandons us altogether.

Fortunately, those varied cultures, for all of their truly profound wisdom and insight into the workings of our world, got this one wrong. We know that thanks to the work of the authors Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod. They tell us that our environmental daddy is not some distant and unpredictable ball of gas, but rather a non-governmental organization right here in our midst known as Environmental Defense Fund.

OK, perhaps I am paraphrasing Crutchfield and McLeod, and perhaps I am reaching somewhat in my interpretation of their words in doing so. The may not equate Environmental Defense Fund to Mother Earth in sustaining life. But in their recent book Forces for Good, they identify and analyze the common practices of a dozen non-profit groups that they have assessed to be the most effective and to have the highest impact. Among those twelve is but a single environmental group, and that group is Environmental Defense Fund. In the words of Crutchfield and McLeod, "By daring to 'find the ways that work', Environmental Defense has influenced not only other green groups but also government policy and business practices." (p. 14; note that "Fund" has returned to the name of the organization since publication of the book)

So, as we wind down the 40th anniversary year of this exemplary organization, allow me to offer a completely heartfelt and, ahem, unbiased thank you to Environmental Defense Fund for all they have done over the past four decades to ensure clean air and water, protect species and ecosystems, and curb global climate change. Best of luck for another 40 years!