Did your hot morning beverage kill a songbird today? It’s possible. I know, there are so many things we as consumers must be conscious of that it is easy to lose track of them all. It’s interesting to watch the cultural evolution happening over the last century in the US, where we have gone from being barely able to buy basic necessities, to having so much junk in our homes that our garages and landfills are overflowing with it. Our lives are complicated by our cultural, possibly even human need to buy more stuff. Shopping, for many in the US, isn’t simply about getting the bare necessities, but it’s also about entertainment. What to do today? Go out to a park and go for a hike? Take a walk? Naw, let’s go to the mall. Too many of us fill our spare moments with shopping, and that’s because it is built into our culture. How many trips do you make away from your house, where you don’t spend any money? It used to be easier to do so when the old bank account was modestly endowed, but now, thanks to cheap credit, you never have to stop buying stuff. Our economy is designed this way; George Bush isn’t giving you some of your tax money back for nothing. How long can this waste-blitz continue?

So, it would seem that we have entered a new era, one that is not likely to go away soon, unless we re-enter the dark ages and our access to the internet is shut down. Because now we have access to a lot of information that must be organized and digested, more than we have ever had to manage before. We know if some American corporation is doing something dastardly, using slave labor in another country, and we can consider withholding our dollars until their behavior changes. We learn how China may be less sensitive to human rights in exchange for access to a country’s natural resources. But, do we turn that tap off from China? I do not want to stand in the way of a better life for the many Chinese who live in poverty. I do feel that, as Americans, many, but not all of us have a choice in how we spend our money. It often comes down to convenience for us, rather than what is right. My interests in this blog center on the environment, and the scientific data that gets churned out onto the net every week on the subject. I don’t condone being alarmist, but, I also worry that the warnings we have gotten about our environmental abuse are too easily ignored.

For instance, an excellent article by Bridget Stutchbury was in the Sunday, March 30th edition of the New York Times (link included below). She is a professor of biology at York University in Toronto and author of the book “Silence of the Songbirds“. The gist of her article is that by purchasing certain foods from Mexico, Central and South America, such as non-organic coffee, bananas, tomatoes, melons, green beans, bell peppers and strawberries, we are inadvertently supporting the vast overuse of herbicides and pesticides in those regions. Many of these pesticides are either banned or highly restricted in the US, because data indicates the toxic effects they have on wildlife, and presumably, humans. I like fresh fruit in the winter as much as anyone, and I don’t like to pay top dollar for everything I buy. I want more in my bank account, and this isn’t wrong thinking, as long as that extra money doesn’t go to buying more junk. I would happily pay more money for the foods that I enjoy and rely upon for good health, if it means that those involved in raising and harvesting it earn a living wage, and if it means that it is done in a sustainable fashion. It is a decision I am free to make, meanwhile, many bird species have crashing populations, so I might not have a lot of time to do so if I treasure our songbirds.

• Groceries and Dead Birds