Brown pelican recovery is often heralded as a success story for the Endangered Species Act. California declared the brown pelicans recovered in the state as of June of 2009, and the federal de-listing came in November 2009. Yet organizations like International Bird Rescue Research Center believe the act came too soon for the California population of brown pelicans.
Even though the population size grew enough to consider the species recovered, many of the factors that led to brown pelican endangerment are still prevalent today. Which is why Change.org community member, Dagmar Jesensky, is petitioning California to return brown pelicans to the state’s endangered species list.
Poisoning from the pesticide DDT caused the brown pelican population crash back in the 1960s, along with a number of other bird species, including bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Despite an EPA ban in 1972, DDT is still having effects on bird populations today, such as the federally endangered California condor.
Having just been declared recovered last year, IBRRC worries that, while the number of pelicans in California has “recovered,” the population has not stabilized.
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Kids are now seeing fewer TV commercials for sweets and sugary beverages than before, says a new report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. But this good news is tempered by an increase in the number of TV ads for fast food.
The research team looked at television advertising targeted at children from 2003 to 2007. Researchers found that on average, children between the ages of two and 11 are seeing 30 percent fewer ads for fruit drinks and soft drinks. In addition, ads for candies, cookies, and other sweets went down 35 percent. But ads for fast food increased by eight percent, with two-to-five-year-olds seeing more ads for fast food than cereal. Lisa Powell, one of the researchers, commented, “That suggests a lot of branding is going on. They are starting marketing of brand loyalty at an earlier age.”
What is perhaps most shocking, however, is the disparity between children of different races. The researchers found that African-American children saw 1.4 to 1.6 times as many food ads each day as their white counterparts, and they saw double the number of fast-food ads. Just think about that for a moment along with the oft-cited statistic that one in three children born after 2000 will suffer from diabetes, and if that group is narrowed down to just minority children, the number rises to one in two. Maybe not a direct correlation, but I wouldn’t be willing to bet against a connection.
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