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Tom Gullick: 9,000+ (1 Viewer)

Did his central Spain tour 20 years ago. Despite having seen all the birds on the tour many times he remained extremely enthusiastic and ensured we all saw everything. Not surprised he has reached this landmark, but where are the other 2 or is it 3 or 4 thousand other species he hasn't seen?!
 
If twitching/list-building leads to a greater awareness of the benefits of tourism against habitat destruction, and means that at least a little bit of the Amazon, Madagascar etc etc remains, I reckon a bit of CO2 is worth the price...
 
Too many people still don't understand that in tropics, conservation relies on extra money. Travelling birdwatchers and other eco-tourism is one of few sources of income without habitat destruction.

I think Birdforum archives still keep quite deperate letters from Peru and East African Arc asking more foreign birdwatchers to visit. Otherwise, reserves and endemic birds would be destroyed by local people in just few years of time, long before any global warming.
 
I can kind of get why twitching vagrants a bit less would be a good thing, especially cross country chases for birds that are easy a few states or countries over. But I think the environmental impacts of increased ecotourism, awareness of conservation plights, etc I think outweighs impacts from carbon emissions IMHO
 
I wonder how many of the 9k will still be there in 10 years if no-one goes to see them? Convincing their guardians of the the economic benefits for saving their habitats surely must win out against 1 birder not getting on a flight to Colombia (or wherever) when it will go anyway..
Congrats and very envious.
 
I buy REDD carbon offsets for all of my international flights. They're inexpensive compared to the cost of a birding trip.
 
Indeed, what a bunch of miserable f*cks!!
Jesus, wouldn't want to meet any of them anywhere - thankfully I doubt I will as I intend to drive and fly and bird worldwide until I die!
 
I love this mosprunt from one of the replies:

People should find there own patches and bird there a lot-you can keep lists and all that stuff but save driving and you also save on petrel costs.

:eek!:

Peter
 
DMW said:
I wonder who pi#sed in his cornflakes?
Click to expand...

This attitude is something that I blame the RSPB for although they are not alone and I pulled the WWT up for it recently as well. The CO2 contribution of aviation is a third of that produced by motoring and not only is this true on a global level, it holds for pretty much every reasonably civilised country/region in the world. The real shocker is when we look at how travel stacks up against industry and it is often less than 10% of the total emissions. The figures have been out there on the Internet for years and I have been trying to get conservation organisations to be a bit more truthful about the full story. However, I suspect it is political insomuch as there is a desire to treat air travel as frivilous and the letter-writer has fallen right into the same trap.
 
Nightranger said:
This attitude is something that I blame the RSPB for although they are not alone and I pulled the WWT up for it recently as well. The CO2 contribution of aviation is a third of that produced by motoring and not only is this true on a global level, it holds for pretty much every reasonably civilised country/region in the world. The real shocker is when we look at how travel stacks up against industry and it is often less than 10% of the total emissions. The figures have been out there on the Internet for years and I have been trying to get conservation organisations to be a bit more truthful about the full story. However, I suspect it is political insomuch as there is a desire to treat air travel as frivilous and the letter-writer has fallen right into the same trap.
Click to expand...

I think the roots of this view lie in the untaxed nature of aviation fuel...
MJB
 
A classic example of Birforum. 3:) Start off congratulating Tom on reaching 9000 species, move on to travelling birders encouraging conservation efforts, a bit of ( well deserved ) abuse, climate change, a pop at the RSPB and ending up with taxation. Brilliant :t:

Chris
 
Johann Sebastian Bach said:
I love this mosprunt from one of the replies:

People should find there own patches and bird there a lot-you can keep lists and all that stuff but save driving and you also save on petrel costs.
Click to expand...
Well, petrels are expensive I guess, especially storm petrels (or was it assault petrels?). Plus, if you follow that particular gem of advice, you can save on English classes. Who needs language skills and proper grammar, anyway - such a waste of carbon dioxide.
 
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