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The John Batchelor Show

2: . The Snowy Egret and Emperor Penguin: Conservation, Fashion, and Climate Crisis AUTHOR: Stephen Moss BOOK TITLE: 10 Birds That Changed the World This final excerpt discusses the slaughter of the Snowy Egret for its feathers during the 19th-century "plum

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

. The Snowy Egret and Emperor Penguin: Conservation, Fashion, and Climate Crisis

AUTHOR: Stephen Moss
BOOK TITLE: 10 Birds That Changed the World
This final excerpt discusses the slaughter of the Snowy Egret for its feathers during the 19th-century "plumage wars," driven by high fashion. The extreme cruelty galvanized women to form conservation societies, such as the Audubon Society. The murder of warden Guy Bradley, who was protecting the birds, helped end the industry. The conversation concludes with the Emperor Penguin, which is facing massive population loss (estimated 98% by 2100) due to the climate crisis and serves as the "miner's canary" warning humanity of impending doom.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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This is CBSI in the world. I'm with Stephen Moss. I'm John Batchel. His new book is 10 birds that changed the world. First, the snowy equit. A beautiful bird to look at photographs. The plumage

0:35.1

wars. This had to do with fashion, maybe from Marie Antoinette, but certainly

0:39.8

by the 19th century in Europe and in America. Ladies hat. Stephen, there's a part of the story

0:47.4

that's hard to tell about the abuse of birds with beautiful plumes like the snowy eagrin.

0:54.9

We've changed, Stephen.

0:56.5

There's no toleration for this kind of cruelty today.

0:59.8

I hope not.

1:00.5

I mean, people still shoot birds, certainly in Europe and America, you know,

1:04.7

but what happened here was, as you say,

1:07.1

this was driven by, I suppose, what you'd call posh rich women in New York in Paris in London.

1:13.6

They wanted to outdo their friends and they did so first by wearing ostrich feathers, which

1:19.0

were farmed so that was less of a problem, but then from feathers of wild birds.

...

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