James Brooks, who writes an outdoorsy column for Johnson City Press, skewered Zach Wamp yesterday for embracing the “junk science” – also known as coal industry 20-year-old spin – that mountaintop removal mining “creates a new habitat that is bird friendly.”
The article is not online yet but here are the highlights:
It was almost 20 years ago, at a convention of the American Birding Association in California, that I first heard an industry spokesperson try to foist off the argument that strip mining creates a new habitat that is bird friendly.
He was hooted and shouted down right on the spot. Normally birders are polite people who listen carefully and then wait for the discussion period. This kind of junk science was such an affront that nobody was willing to wait….
The power industry quickly gave up trying to bamboozle birders with this sort of statistical flimflam…
Almost two decades later, the power industry has finally found someone stupid enough to buy this argument, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp….
I believe even Wamp, who has crossed swords with bird watchers numerous times in his district, had more sense than to frame his argument to those he has offended throughout his legislative career.
Brooks then explains the difference between desirable birds and the ones Mr. Wamp is referring to like non-native starlings, which “thrive on wasted environments and roosts on powerlines.”
Apparently there is a huge difference and the people in upper East Tennessee know it.
Brooks calls Rep. Wamp a dim bulb, too, probably because he thought calling him a “bird brain” might insult the people who know the difference between a pigeon and a Ruffed Grouse (see picture of said Ruffed Grouse).
UPDATE: Clearly, Mr. Wamp is not in touch with the people. Does anyone besides John Rich and the other 20-percenters living in the state care more about the 10th amendment than they care about a clean water and a healthy eco-system?
