Shifting Baselines Quotes

“Ask a graybeard for a fish story, and you are bound to be regaled about a childhood catch that was “this big!” Any listening kids will giggle. They’ll think that he’s exaggerating or that his memory has failed—after all, no fish is that big.
Actually, fish really were that big. In fact, fishing preferentially removes larger specimens, causing a steady decrease in overall size. When the old man passes away, so does his baseline. Every generation naturally accepts the planet as it is, with ever-smaller fish, fewer birds, and less ice. That’s how humans as a whole unwittingly overlook drastic and devastating changes to the environment. The unfolding declines are broken into a series of baselines—ever shifting—so the overall loss is never felt by a single generation, never suffered by a single soul.”
― Brooke Bessesen, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez