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RE: In search of harmony between human progress and wildlife welfare
Your reaction to the construction reminds me of NIMBYism. I think we're all guilty of that. I know I am.
Your example of the Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary and how one woman made such a difference reminds me of a few examples I saw in the Netflix documentary Wild China.
- Pere David's deer were illegally taken out of China to England for exhibition. As it happened, they went extinct in China, and have now been reintroduced from the population in England.
- A population of crocodiles was being hunted to near extinction, and one elderly woman took it upon herself to save them. She takes their eggs and raises them to several years old in a secure enclosure. She's out in the middle of nowhere in China, doing this of her own accord.
I still experience some cognitive dissonance like NIMBY and waver between increased environmental regulations and increased property rights, but I keep seeing more and more stories like these, and they fill me with hope that Free Market Environmentalism is where it's at.
Sorry that I missed this when you posted it. You're exactly right. I overlooked it when posting, but it definitely is the NIMBY mind set that I was describing. Quite literally.
In my defense, though, I didn't go to the township and try to get zoning changed to prevent the construction. I think the feeling is natural, but what matters is how we respond to it. Do we use it to justify a march towards a more repressive society, or try to imagine peaceful ways to accomplish the same goals?