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Index of Subjects This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_9GI6iW9QEjIJ1waEORkw8g) Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT What a cheerful note to start the day!! Of course, many (most?) of our fellow citizens are not particularly interested in Nature, but there is nothing new here. Wendy and I did a lot of camping in our younger years, beginning in the early 70's, and the focus of many of our activities was the observation of nature - wildflowers, mammals and, of course, birds. On rising early to take a walk around the campsite or further afield, I very seldom met anyone who had similar interests. We travelled across Canada in 1981 and back in 1982, camping all the way. It was the same story - we met few people with a passion, or even an interest, in Nature. This makes it even more imperative for those of us who care about Nature to do everything we can to protect it. It is also the responsibility of naturalists to educate those who are ignorant in terms of natural history and who want to learn more. Cheers, Bob McDonald ----- Original Message ----- From: Blake Maybank To: BIRDCHAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU ; naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 7:36 AM Subject: [NatureNS] Disinterest in nature -- another threat to birds To All; A recently published study gave me great pause. You can find a synopsis here: http://tinyurl.com/2e6jdl The original on-line journal article that this article cites is limited to subscribers only at the moment, so I could not access it. As a corollary to this study's findings, I can offer this unscientific observation. Last summer when my wife and I were camping in the Yukon, spending much of each day hiking, photographing, and enjoying nature, we were impressed (and depressed) at how few fellow campers/hikers we encountered, weighed (sic) against the large number of immense recreational vehicles, whose inhabitants rarely ventured outside. It was as if their wind-shields were ersatz video screens, a type of rolling multi-media show. I thought upon one of Thoreau's most well-known quotes: "We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things by mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature." Thoreau was too optimistic, and society, it seems, with respect to nature, may have had its fill. In reflection, and wishing all well, ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blake Maybank maybank@ns.sympatico.ca Editor, "Nova Scotia Birds" author, "Birding Sites of Nova Scotia" http://maybank.tripod.com/BSNS.htm White's Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.20/1260 - Release Date: 2/5/2008 9:44 AM --Boundary_(ID_9GI6iW9QEjIJ1waEORkw8g) Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16587" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2>What a cheerful note to start the day!!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Of course, many (most?) of our fellow citizens are not particularly interested in Nature, but there is nothing new here. Wendy and I did a lot of camping in our younger years, beginning in the early 70's, and the focus of many of our activities was the observation of nature - wildflowers, mammals and, of course, birds. On rising early to take a walk around the campsite or further afield, I very seldom met anyone who had similar interests. We travelled across Canada in 1981 and back in 1982, camping all the way. It was the same story - we met few people with a passion, or even an interest, in Nature.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>This makes it even more imperative for those of us who care about Nature to do everything we can to protect it. It is also the responsibility of naturalists to educate those who are ignorant in terms of natural history and who want to learn more.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Cheers,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Bob McDonald</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=maybank@ns.sympatico.ca href="mailto:maybank@ns.sympatico.ca">Blake Maybank</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=BIRDCHAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU href="mailto:BIRDCHAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU">BIRDCHAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</A> ; <A title=naturens@chebucto.ns.ca href="mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca">naturens@chebucto.ns.ca</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, February 05, 2008 7:36 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [NatureNS] Disinterest in nature -- another threat to birds</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV>To All;<BR><BR>A recently published study gave me great pause. You can find a synopsis here:<BR><BR><B><A href="http://tinyurl.com/2e6jdl" eudora="autourl">http://tinyurl.com/2e6jdl</A></B> <BR><BR>The original on-line journal article that this article cites is limited to subscribers only at the moment, so I could not access it.<BR><BR>As a corollary to this study's findings, I can offer this unscientific observation. Last summer when my wife and I were camping in the Yukon, spending much of each day hiking, photographing, and enjoying nature, we were impressed (and depressed) at how few fellow campers/hikers we encountered, weighed (sic) against the large number of immense re