I remember seeing an article on this subject some ? 6  months ago on ? The Guardian UK website on a slew of 'boutique' British travel agencies who were hooking themselves on to the 'last chance to see' schpiel.

They all had a bunch of somewhat creative but equally bogus reasons for justifying what they did.

I've also come across a rash of articles lately on the economic advantages of birding, particularly 'twitching' which encourages zillions of birders to charge around the world madly looking for rare or lost 'out of range' birds. Twitchers supposedly pump millions into rural economies etc., but I've never seen the cost of this increasingly mainstream pastime-for-the-rich in terms of carbon emissions.

As a confirmed birding addict - though not a long-range twitcher - it amazes me how 'people who love nature' (birds) can be so blind to their impacts...

Whiskerfish

And the unspeakably savage covetousness that attends it: It is something that Sauron knew, then Smeagol/Gollum, then, sadly, if briefly, Bilbo and Frodo.

Thanks, Whiskerfish, for bringing up the preciousness of rare birds.  If going after the few remaining ones is an ethical problem for birders, my dread -- cynic that I am! -- is that there are collectors out there too, whose activities are even more horrible to consider.

That is why, early last year, after some apparently reliable reports came in from eastern Arkansas that an Ivory-billed Woodpecker had been spotted, I was very fearful that we would soon be hearing of operations thereabouts by the agents of self-interested (but pointlessly so!) collectors.

We are already beginning to resemble Philip K. Dick's dystopia, described in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," a world with very few surviving animals, such that living animals are objects of desire, the preserve of the wealthy few, and inspirers of criminal activity; and most people, whose hearts were broken when the animals died, have to find consolation with "electric sheep," and other artificial substitutes.  (This is the moral heart of the story, which was elided when it was transformed into the quite different movie "Blade Runner.")

I am sure you know a great deal about a somewhat analogous situation in Africa, though not with birds: the recently announced discovery of a considerable population of elephants, in southern Sudan, on an island where the White Nile breaks into countless channels.  The scientists who made the discovery have apparently kept the location of the island a secret, fearing what need not be said: that if its location became known, poachers seeking ivory would quickly arrive, and the elephants would be doomed.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!

I found this article refreshing because it demonstrates exactly what the issue is - when resources become scarce, humans use them up, faster than ever.  It illustrates that many rhetorical buzzwords of the green movement - conserve, save, protect - mean nothing in the face of diminishing resources.  People simply will not do these things.

did contain a cloned owl.

I watched it again recently and was completely blown away by how prescient its depictions of large cities  were - there is so much in that film that could come straight out of any megalopolis in East Asia right now. It's really hard to believe that it was made so long ago.

I keep the nest locations of the birds of prey I work on a closely-guarded secret. There are too many folks here in Cape Town that will steal eggs and chicks to keep for themselves as trophies or sell on to the Middle East where birds of prey are prized trinkets of the mega-wealthy.

A couple of years ago a well-known Japanese botanist was bust smuggling rare succulents from the desert near here. His fine was about US$50 000 - a mind-boggling sum in SA that made headlines (the conservation community FINALLY got a judge that took plant smuggling seriously!), but he paid it without blinking as he'd already made millions off his previous trips to this country. He still has his professorship in Japan.

Rare animals and 'untouched' wilderness really are becoming valuable possessions.

Whiskerfish

... is reported to have hosted "Endangered Species" fundraisers where the menu consisted of as many threatened species as possible.

Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.

Chenowith - needs to be followed up. What an amazing story!

Whiskerfish

...Tibet is not a country, it's an area of China.

Thanks, Karen, I had forgotten about that remarkable little movie, which we saw a couple of years ago.  It was probably not seen by many people actually; and I wonder how those who did see it interpreted the criminal trade in rare exotic animals for the purpose of serving them for food to wealthy clients.  That decadent, over-the-top kind of evil would seem more at home in a James Bond movie than in one about the Mafia.

And thanks for the research on Helen Chenoweth, hardly a household name in this part of the country.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!

the only solution to pollution is revolution