USGS and Partners Continue Investigating DC Area Bird Mortality Event

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UPDATED Interagency Statement: USGS and Partners Continue Investigating DC Area Bird Mortality Event

In late May, wildlife managers in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky began receiving reports of sick and dying birds with eye swelling and crusty discharge, as well as neurological signs. More recently, additional reports have been received from Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. While the majority of affected birds are reported to be fledgling common grackles, blue jays, European starlings and American robins, other species of songbirds have been reported as well. No definitive cause(s) of illness or death have been determined at this time. No human health or domestic livestock and poultry issues have been reported.

The natural resource management agencies in the affected states and the District of Columbia, along with the National Park Service, are continuing to work with diagnostic laboratories to investigate the cause(s) of this event. Those laboratories include the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, the University of Georgia Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, the University of Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program and the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.

The following pathogens have not been detected in any birds tested, based on results received to date: Salmonella and Chlamydia (bacterial pathogens); avian influenza virus; West Nile virus and other flaviviruses; Newcastle disease virus and other paramyxoviruses; herpesviruses and poxviruses; and Trichomonas parasites. Transmission electron microscopy and additional diagnostic tests, including microbiology, virology, parasitology and toxicology, are ongoing.

Why do we buy so much stuff? – Vox

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Why do we buy so much stuff? – Vox

What’s at the root of modern American consumerism? It might not just be competition among the brands trying to sell us things, but also competition among ourselves.

An easy story to tell is that marketers and advertisers have perfected tactics to convince us to purchase things, some we need, some we don’t. And it’s an important part of the country’s capitalistic, growth-centered economy: The more people spend, the logic goes, the better it is for everybody. (Never mind that they’re sometimes spending money they don’t have, or the implications of all this production and trash for the planet.) People, naturally, want things.

But American consumerism is also built on societal factors that are often overlooked. We have a social impetus to “keep up with the Joneses,” whoever our own version of the Joneses is. And in an increasingly unequal society, the Joneses at the very top are doing a lot of the consuming, while the people at the bottom struggle to keep up or, ultimately, are left fighting for scraps.

It is funny a few weeks ago I was reading Henry David Thoreau's Walden, and he was pointing out how by even the 1830s, consumerism was a big thing, so much that it wasn't uncommon for families to regularly pile up their broken furniture and other detritus and have big ol' bonfires. Nowadays, while farmers and rednecks still do the bonfire thing, ordering up dumpsters for purges is a regular thing.

Fort Hunter

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Fort Hunter is located where the Schoharie Creek and Mohawk River come together. A point of land, jutted out into the river valley, this small town often floodafter hurricanes and heavy springtime rains. You can see the Canal Trail and NY 5S bridge, which gets swapped occassionally for maintance work. Also visible is the remains of the Schoharie Crossing and the old Erie Canal, which once ran directly through Fort Hunter.

 

Life Kit : NPR

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Single-Use Plastic Is Everywhere. Here’s How To Use Less Plastic : Life Kit : NPR

The only argument I with this article is this section:

Look at the items on your plastic inventory list and ask yourself, "What can I replace the plastic with?" Chhotray is a big fan of going reusable, and her backpack is proof: "I carry my reusable water bottle, my reusable tumbler because I'm a tea addict. I have bamboo cutlery." She says some days she also carries chopsticks and a reusable straw. "My family sort of makes fun of me because my backpacks are starting to get bigger and bigger every year."

Arellano swapped bath products that came in plastic bottles for ones that come as bars — a shampoo bar and a bar of soap.

I don't think the way to reduce your trash is buy more trash. Seriously, do you need to go out and buy more sustainable products, when you probably already have too much junk? Just go into your cupboard and grab your drinking water bottle or metal silverware. No need to buy a special wood fork, you are going throw away when you can get one from your kitchen. Metal is easier to wash and keep clean, and it's not like metal silverware is real expensive.