| | | | | Welcome! This week, shrimp boat captains and bikes at the Met. But first, talking parrots. | | "The Great Silence," a sci-fi story about Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, is told from the point of view of a native parrot. As one reader pointed out after reading my recent column on naturalist apps, there are so many species on Earth able — and trying — to communicate with us. The vast radio telescope, before it collapsed in 2020, covered an area of more than 15 football fields. Its massive dish, cradled between lush mountains, listened to the background music of the universe, straining to hear life shouting across the cosmos. "But I and my fellow parrots are right here," says the narrator. "Why aren't they interested in listening to our voices?" | | Maybe humanity lacks the ears to hear, even beings as loud as the Puerto Rican parrot. Centuries ago, more than a million Puerto Rican parrots darkened the skies above forests surrounding what would later become the Arecibo Observatory. By 1975, as the lowland forests were cleared, the species had dwindled to just 13 wild individuals and some captive pairs. "Now we're almost gone," the parrot tells us. "Soon this rainforest may be as silent as the rest of the universe." I'm not sure what it will take to prevent a sixth mass extinction. But hearing the voices of those who share the planet with us is surely part of it. And many species possess the ability to "speak" with us in their way — parrots included, which outperform 5-year-old humans in some cognitive tasks. | | Last week, I heard from many of you excited that you could name your wild neighbors for the first time. And that recognition is powerful: As long as wilderness remains an "other," it is easier to destroy — and harder to save. Spending time just listening to nature reverses our deafness. Apps like Seek, Merlin, Pl@ntNet and iNaturalist can help us hear. "Human activity has brought my kind to the brink of extinction, but I don't blame them for it," says the parrot in the story. "They didn't do it maliciously. They just weren't paying attention." Who are your wild neighbors? Send stories or photos to climatecoach@washpost.com. | |  | | Diane Wilson in Seadrift Harbor, Tex. (Goldman Environmental Prize) | | Diane Wilson didn't want to be an environmental activist. But the former shrimp boat captain in the Gulf of Mexico took the job when shrimp catches collapsed in the estuaries around Calhoun County, Tex. She launched what would become a years-long environmental investigation that showed a nearby Formosa Plastics factory was illegally releasing massive amounts of toxins. | | The fourth-generation fisherwoman secured a $50 million settlement from Formosa, as well as more than $100 million in investments to reach "zero discharge" of plastic waste. She is one of six people this year to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize | | | David Byrne knows how to arrive in style. On May 1, the musician and lead singer of Talking Heads rolled up to the Met Gala on his bike. | | | (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) | | It's the same way he has gotten around New York City since the early 1980s. The Talking Heads frontman is a die-hard bike advocate. His book "Bicycle Diaries" recalls adventures pedaling through the world's major cities, from Buenos Aires to Berlin, and connecting with the people who live there. | | | The Environmental Protection Agency proposed water quality standards for more than 250 Indian reservations, giving tribes more power to protect rivers, lakes and streams on their land. | |  | | Your generosity abounds, readers. Nivi of "engagement bike" fame wrote recently to say thank you. "I'M SOOOO GRATEFUL for the article from last week," she wrote. "A Post reader gifted my fiancé and me an ebike trip!!!! We're going in June and biking from Austria to Germany!!!" (Thanks, e-bike Nomads.) There's also more to "No Mow May" than meets the eye. Mowing can sometimes help backyard ecosystems with native species recover by emulating wild grazers, such as the herds of pronghorn antelope that once roamed California's Central Valley, according to Rebecca Hernandez, an ecologist at the University of California at Davis. In places where vegetation did not co-evolve with grazers, however, mowing is detrimental. The bottom line: "Refraining from mowing alone is not enough," Hernandez wrote in an email. Reseeding wild species is the name of the game. And not all "native" seed packs are created equal — some are downright deceptive, writes Margaret in Virginia. The gold standard is from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to insects, pollinators and underappreciated creatures of all kinds. Order your native seeds there. Audubon's directory also has an excellent list of native nurseries. I'll dive deeper into this topic soon. | |  | | From The Washington Post: "IcyHot fan blasters" and "clean green comfort machine" are two names proposed to solve heat pumps' marketing problem for people confused about what they do, writes Shannon Osaka. Indonesia is cutting deforestation by putting Indigenous people in charge: The Kajang forest guardians are at the heart of it. Think it's warm now? El Niño is coming, and there has already been an ominous surge in ocean temperatures. Just outside the birthplace of the modern oil and gas industry, a utility is spending $1.5 billion on gas turbines that can also run on clean hydrogen, Timothy Puko reports from Port Arthur, Tex. | |  | | My morning walk has turned into a birding expedition. Using the Merlin app, I've identified almost every species in the woods near my house, including finches, song sparrows, hummingbirds, juncos and chestnut-backed chickadees. But one song stumped the app: A squeak from my 10-month-old son. Merlin thought it had heard a red-necked grebe. (To be fair, they sounded sort of similar.) | | | A Merlin app image. (Michael J. Coren) | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. | | See you next Tuesday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | | |
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