274
complexes, aerospace water-contamination sites, nuclear weapons plants, and nerve
gas disposal areas” reverberate with ever-escalating despair.
10
There are no overall estimates on the number of birds killed in US Superfund
sites each year, but a random sampling of troubling headlines makes clear how
tragic the continuing matrix of death is: “Birds fall from sky amid massive chemical
cleanup,”
11
“At least 3000 geese killed by toxic water from former Montana copper
mine,”
12
“EPA Responds to Dead Birds Around Michigan Superfund Site,”
13
“Government Officials May Have Mishandled DDT Superfund Site,”
14
“After 3
decades, birds still fall dead from sky in St. Louis,”
15
“Thousands of bird deaths
draw focus on brimming toxic pit,”
16
and on and ever on.
In T. S. Eliot’s lean epic “The Waste Land,” V. “What the Thunder said,” lines
357 and 359, “Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees…But there is no
water,” the poet makes a footnote expressly to delineate this species as Turdus
aonalaschkae pallasii, which Eliot apparently saw and heard in Quebec Province,
and saw fit to recognize during a catastrophic coming drought that would surely kill
its kind.
17
The species is also called the Dwarf Hermit Thrush. At least 1450 bird
species around the world are currently deemed to be threatened and “one in eight of
the world’s birds faces extinction.”
18
In his Foreword to Blake L. Twigden’s 1991
masterpiece, The Fifty Rarest Birds of the World, writing from Soestdijk Palace,
then Prince of the Netherlands, Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, stated simply: “I
urge you to play a part in the new conservation age. The loss of the delightful creatures in this book would be a tragedy for mankind….”
19
While 182 bird species are
thought to have gone extinct since 1500,
20
several of those painted by Twigden are
10 See “This bird’s eye view of America’s most polluted sites will break your heart,” by Marcus
Baram, Fast Company, September 24, 2018, https://www.fastcompany.com/90240249/this-birdseye-view-of-americas-most-polluted-sites-will-break-your-heart; see David T. Hanson’s Waste
Land, preface by Wendell Berry, afterword by Jimena Canales, essay by David T. Hanson, Taverner
Press, 2018, https://www.tavernerpress.com/wasteland.html
11 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/05/birds-fall-from-sky-amid-massivechemical-cleanup/13609579/
12 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/23/geese-die-montana-toxic-mine-epa
13 https://connect.edrnet.com/s/article/EPA-Responds-to-Dead-Birds-Around-MichiganSuperfund-Site-1489082045049
14 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-officials-may-have-mishandledddt-superfund-site/
15 https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2014/08/03/after-3-decades-birds-still-fall-deadfrom-sky-in-st-louis/13525865/
16 https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/thousands-of-bird-deaths-draw-focus-on-brimming-toxic-pit/article_18521284-41ad-5142-9e28-b13c2fc0ad66.html
17 See The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot, Faber and Faber, London 1969, p. 79.
18 BirdLife International Data Zone, “Key messages and case studies,” http://datazone.birdlife.org/
sowb/state/theme4
19 The Fifty Rarest Birds Of The World, by Blake L. Twigden, Osborne Editions International,
Auckland, New Zealand, 1991.
20 BirdLife International Data Zone, http://datazone.birdlife.org/sowb/casestudy/we-have-lostover-150-bird-species-since-1500
29 Book of the Dead
complexes, aerospace water-contamination sites, nuclear weapons plants, and nerve
gas disposal areas” reverberate with ever-escalating despair.
10
There are no overall estimates on the number of birds killed in US Superfund
sites each year, but a random sampling of troubling headlines makes clear how
tragic the continuing matrix of death is: “Birds fall from sky amid massive chemical
cleanup,”
11
“At least 3000 geese killed by toxic water from former Montana copper
mine,”
12
“EPA Responds to Dead Birds Around Michigan Superfund Site,”
13
“Government Officials May Have Mishandled DDT Superfund Site,”
14
“After 3
decades, birds still fall dead from sky in St. Louis,”
15
“Thousands of bird deaths
draw focus on brimming toxic pit,”
16
and on and ever on.
In T. S. Eliot’s lean epic “The Waste Land,” V. “What the Thunder said,” lines
357 and 359, “Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees…But there is no
water,” the poet makes a footnote expressly to delineate this species as Turdus
aonalaschkae pallasii, which Eliot apparently saw and heard in Quebec Province,
and saw fit to recognize during a catastrophic coming drought that would surely kill
its kind.
17
The species is also called the Dwarf Hermit Thrush. At least 1450 bird
species around the world are currently deemed to be threatened and “one in eight of
the world’s birds faces extinction.”
18
In his Foreword to Blake L. Twigden’s 1991
masterpiece, The Fifty Rarest Birds of the World, writing from Soestdijk Palace,
then Prince of the Netherlands, Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, stated simply: “I
urge you to play a part in the new conservation age. The loss of the delightful creatures in this book would be a tragedy for mankind….”
19
While 182 bird species are
thought to have gone extinct since 1500,
20
several of those painted by Twigden are
10 See “This bird’s eye view of America’s most polluted sites will break your heart,” by Marcus
Baram, Fast Company, September 24, 2018, https://www.fastcompany.com/90240249/this-birdseye-view-of-americas-most-polluted-sites-will-break-your-heart; see David T. Hanson’s Waste
Land, preface by Wendell Berry, afterword by Jimena Canales, essay by David T. Hanson, Taverner
Press, 2018, https://www.tavernerpress.com/wasteland.html
11 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/05/birds-fall-from-sky-amid-massivechemical-cleanup/13609579/
12 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/23/geese-die-montana-toxic-mine-epa
13 https://connect.edrnet.com/s/article/EPA-Responds-to-Dead-Birds-Around-MichiganSuperfund-Site-1489082045049
14 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-officials-may-have-mishandledddt-superfund-site/
15 https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2014/08/03/after-3-decades-birds-still-fall-deadfrom-sky-in-st-louis/13525865/
16 https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/thousands-of-bird-deaths-draw-focus-on-brimming-toxic-pit/article_18521284-41ad-5142-9e28-b13c2fc0ad66.html
17 See The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot, Faber and Faber, London 1969, p. 79.
18 BirdLife International Data Zone, “Key messages and case studies,” http://datazone.birdlife.org/
sowb/state/theme4
19 The Fifty Rarest Birds Of The World, by Blake L. Twigden, Osborne Editions International,
Auckland, New Zealand, 1991.
20 BirdLife International Data Zone, http://datazone.birdlife.org/sowb/casestudy/we-have-lostover-150-bird-species-since-1500
29 Book of the Dead