Not all is doom and gloom. We are beginning to understand the natural world and are gaining a reverence for life - all life.

Butterflies may be better indicators of the health of our environment than birds.

Birds ... are sensitive indicators of the environment, a sort of "ecological litmus paper," ... The observation and recording of bird populations over time lead inevitably to environmental awareness and can signal impending changes.

Birds are an ecological litmus paper.

The truth of the matter is, the birds could very well live without us, but many -- perhaps all -- of us would find life incomplete, indeed almost intolerable without the birds.

Penguins are an indicator of the health of our watery planet, and if they are unable to survive, we had better take notice or we might find our own survival threatened.

Vultures are homely, but they clean up all the garbage and that's good. And they're elegant in the sky.