This should be the question on everyone's minds next spring.
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Dan Brooks, ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto.
The purpose of the interview was to discuss his book, My Brothers' Eyes: How My Blind Brothers Taught Me to See. An homage to his brothers, Lucien and Duncan who both lost their sight at the age of four.
My Brother's Eyes is Brooks' conversation with his brothers Lucien and Duncan, both who died when they were in their twenties. Brooks shares this conversation with his readers by recalling childhood experiences, his photography and through descriptions of the places he visits to conduct his research.
Most of all, the book is about seeing with an awareness that goes beyond sight and how growing up with his brothers taught him that.
Chapter four is about post-Katrina New Orleans and includes photographs taken in the Ninth Ward in 2007. The haunting neglect depicted in the images is startling. More so, when you consider what is happening in the Gulf today.
So, naturally, our conversation turned to the BP oil spill.
Brooks had a lot to say about the mess in the Gulf of Mexico. He talked about the American mind-set, the politics, the bureaucracy that seems to be less than helpful and the topics nobody is talking about. For instance, the annual bird migration - which happens in a few months.
The American Bird Conservancy has posted a map that shows the location of the oil spill in relation to globally important bird areas, see here.
Brooks explained that birds migrating south, the birds we see out our windows today, stop in the Gulf of Mexico to feed on their way to South America. When they arrive this year they will find little to no food and most will starve to death.
"Far fewer of them will get to the winter breeding grounds in Latin America," said Brooks. Which means far fewer will return to North America in the spring.
Keep in mind, the trip back also requires a stop in the Gulf, where again, the returning birds will starve to death. "By next May, people in Toronto are going to be saying, boy there are not a lot of birds around," he added.
I'm not so sure I believe Brooks. I don't know that most people will realize there are less birds than usual.
To notice something like that, people have to be aware of the world that surrounds them and I think that kind of awareness is a rare quality.
