This isn't strictly a climate change or energy issue, but it's all one thing, really, so: the SJR reports this morning on the steep drop in numbers of common birds--whippoorwills are the prime example. This harkens back to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring--the woods are growing quieter. At the end of the day, I am not a real outdoors kind of guy--blogging is probably evidence enough of that. But I have memories of camping in South Carolina, where I grew up, and sitting alone near a pond and listening to the whippoorwills. I don't want to see opportunities for my children to do the same to ... disappear.
The articles points out some of the things that people are doing to bring birds back--the problem appears to mostly be habitat loss. Much of this will be things for farmers, but a lot of it can be done by us. I have a tiny plot in the west side, but we've pulled up some of our front lawn for perennials, and put down even more in the backyard. This weekend, my wife was marveling at how many butterflies we had. Some of our plants come from the Native Plant Society's annual plant sales. And, while I haven't seen anything conclusively making this point, I can't help but imagine that green roofs, like the one coming to UIS, are going to be a big part of the solution as well.
In a different vein, I feel like I've seen a lot of letters to the editor recently asking for special events downtown to be greened up. And, indeed, while I was working the Fair this year at Conservation World, one complaint that came up was--why doesn't Conservation World have recycling bins? (For the record, there were some there, but the EPA was hogging them all, those bastards.) Well, here's what one city picked completely at random is doing: the Austin City Limits second annual music fest is greening itself up, using the concert-throwing-agency used by Lollapolooza.