In the past century, the steady growth of the human population and the corresponding increase in agriculture and pesticide use have caused much harm to wildlife in the United States —birds in particular. Unfortunately for birds, these trends are likely

Both the reading and the lecture discuss the effect of the growth of the human population on the number of birds. The reading claims that the growth of human population will result a decline in the number of birds in the United states, and provides three reasons of support. However,in the lecture, the professor says that the reading's explanations are unconvincing and refutes each of the reading's reason.

First, the reading avers that since the growing population of human needs more land to settle, birds' natural habitats will continue to disappear and causes a decrease in their population. The professor opposes this idea by saying that this might be true for some birds, but there are some other birds that this change increased their population like pigeons. She says that this claim is not true because the decline is not uniform, some birds show a decline while others show a growth in their population.

Second, the reading states that the need of increasing agricultural activities will result in the further destruction of birds' habitats. The professor rejects this by saying that at least in the USA less and less lands have been used each year for agriculture. She says that the new approach in agriculture is producing high yield products, which could produce more food in less land.

Finally, the reading pushes forth the idea that chemical pesticides are harmful for birds. The professor contradicts this point by saying that it is true that chemical pesticides are toxic for birds but it is incorrect to apply this to the future. Since we realized that pesticides are toxic, scientist made two changes; first: producing less toxic pesticides, second: trying to produce pest-resistant crops. Therefore, pesticides will not be harmful for birds in the future.