Eddie Albert This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. News about pelicans and other endangered species

   www.pelicanlife.org/archives_p - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/14/2005   Last Visited: 11/23/2007

   2004-5 Archives | Eddie Albert | American White Pelicans 1, 2, | Arizona condor chicks | CA Brown Pelican mutilation1, 2 | domoic acid | | Chase Lake 1, 2, 3 | Chase Lake Pelicans return - First Chicks hatch | Ivory-billed Woodpecker | Klamath Falls White Pelican sculptures | Nevada | Novosibirsk, Russia | pipeline leak South Africa |San Jose, CA | Spot-billed pelicans | Tennessee | Texas White Pelican | White pelicans vs trout |
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   R.I.P.: Eddie Albert, friend to pelicans
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   He read extensively on the subject and spoke with experts in the field. In 1969, he accompanied a molecular biologist from UC Berkeley to Anacapa Island off Ventura County to observe the nesting of pelicans. What they found were thousands of collapsed pelican eggs. "The runoff of DDT had been consumed by the fish, the fish had been eaten by the pelicans, whose metabolism had in turn been disturbed so that the lady pelican could no longer manufacture a sturdy shell," Albert told TV Guide in 1970. After learning more about the effects of DDT, he said, "I stopped being a conservationist…. I became terrified. The more I studied, the more terrified I got." Sharing his ecological concerns on the "Tonight" and "Today" shows, he became, in the words of a TV Guide reporter, "a kind of ecological Paul Revere." The TV appearances led to speaking invitations from high schools, universities, and industrial and religious groups. Albert formed a company to produce films to aid in "international campaigns against environmental pollution." Home base for the actor-activist was an unpretentious Spanish-style house on an acre in Pacific Palisades, where Albert turned the frontyard into a cornfield. He also installed a giant greenhouse in the backyard, where he grew organic vegetables. But a reporter learned better than to call Albert an ecologist. "Ecologist, hell!" he scoffed in the 1970 TV Guide interview. "Too mild a word.