When US sailors first set foot on Midway (then called Brooks) in 1867, the birds were so numerous on the ground that the men could not walk without stepping on the chicks in their nests. Now we can accomplish the same results without traveling to a remote atoll to do it in person.
Recent comments
- 160serpentinegmailcom on An open letter from the populists of the 1890s to the populists of today
- 160serpentinegmailcom on Trumpism, local and global
- eric on A wreck by any other name: on the inadequacy of “Great Recession”
- Brad DeLong on A wreck by any other name: on the inadequacy of “Great Recession”
- Alex on Hitchens minor on the English and their history
- David in San Jose on Trump, populism, Hofstadter, Heer.
- eric on What does Paul Campos know that the Public Policy Institute of California does not?
- ari on What does Paul Campos know that the Public Policy Institute of California does not?
- eric on Keeping a finger on gold
- ari on Keeping a finger on gold
- kevin on “Eight schools account for half of all history professors.”
- eric on “Eight schools account for half of all history professors.”
- ari on “Eight schools account for half of all history professors.”
- eric on “Eight schools account for half of all history professors.”
- eric on A life well lived!
This is officially an award-winning blog
Archives
- September 2021
- July 2017
- April 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- August 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- January 2013
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- May 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
The Edge of the American West 
8 comments
November 2, 2009 at 11:19 am
Tybalt
This broke my heart.
November 2, 2009 at 11:38 am
Ahistoricality
That is, without a doubt, one of the most disturbing photo sets I’ve ever seen. Now I have to decide whether to use it in the last week of my World History survey, when I talk about environmentalism, globalization….
November 2, 2009 at 12:07 pm
JPool
God damn, that’s horrifying.
November 2, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Michael Elliott
My son and I worked are way through the Attenborough BBC series on “The Life of Birds” recently, and so I found this particularly horrifying. The wandering albatross, he (my son) will tell you has the largest wingspan of any bird, and we now have a poster that he made attesting to this fact hanging in our living room. They (the albatrosses) are stunningly graceful fliers. Though pretty terrible landers. Anyhow, I’m pretty sure I’m not ready to let him see this.
November 2, 2009 at 12:35 pm
bitchphd
It’s very depressing, and those pictures have definitely made me more conservative about acquiring plastic crap or things packaged in plastic crap.
November 2, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Goldrush
Ahistoricality, I included the nugget that it would take 2-1/2 Earths to enable the rest of the world to live like US citizens in environmental issues units in survey courses. I’d see the light come on over at least one student’s head every term.
November 2, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Aunt Deb
For more on the huge floating garbage patches of the sea, you can read Curt Ebbesmayer’s recent book “Flotsametrics”. I recently attended a conference at which Ebbesmayer spoke; he showed a slide of one of these little albatrosses and talked about the effect these huge messes of plastic bits and pieces are having on pelagic birds. He urged everyone who beachcombs to pick up a bag of little bits of plastic every time you go to the shore.
One of the first times I was down at the beach, after hearing him, I was filling a bag with bottle caps and plastic straws, bits of busted sand toys, Bic lighters, and old toothbrushes when some woman came up and asked me what I was doing. I explained I was picking up garbage that had drifted in with the movement of the ocean currents. She looked at me and said, “I bet it all comes from China!”
November 4, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Neil the Ethical Werewolf
Excellent title, eric. And yeah, the pictures just blew me away.