In Conservation With… James Van Remsen

[@brerpossum]

Great conversation! What this decision by the AOS has produced so far is mostly rancor, ridicule, and division. When I'm in the field and someone raises the subject, the response is mostly laughter, jokes, and eye rolls. I feel like one point was not adequately addressed: this whole thing started with activism. Young activists decided to target bird names with the political goal of "decolonization" of the language as an objective. If you listened to the people originally demanding this change you'll find this aspect is very evident. They succeeded in getting the ear of politically sympathetic leadership at the AOS. This doesn't represent birders as a whole, but is strongly supported by a segment of birders who are mostly younger and who find this activism appealing. Catering to them has divided the birding community, not for the better. Kenn Kaufman has criticized the signatories to the petition against the AOS decision for being too old. I find this amazingly ageist, and it ignores that birders as a demographic do skew older. I think in siding with a vocal activist minority made up of the least experienced birders, the AOS has only managed to divide the birding community in an unnecessarily destructive way. And they've made it clear that they don't care whether the majority supports their decision or not.