Gray Wolves of Yellowstone Getting a Bad Deal; Hunting Looks to be For Sport

February 8th, 2010

The gray wolves of Yellowstone Park are being slaughtered for not other reason than sport hunting anymore. Montana originally claimed it was targeting wolves that preyed on livestock. I wrote a blog about a 3 year Dept. of Agriculture study of collared wolves that lived around the perimeter of cattle fields. Those wolves crossed those fields nightly. In 3 years time 8 cattle were found dead. Around 2.5 cows per year for multiple wolf packs is a pretty cheesy argument to be making to annihilate the wolves. As a matter of fact some radio collared wolves being studied by biologists were gunned down recently too.

Montana’s proclamation about purposefully targeting wolves was bull. Montana permitted wolf hunting in backcountry wilderness areas 6 weeks before opening its front ranges for cattle according to the NRDC. So a bunch of wolves that were minding their business staying far away from any cattle were gunned down anyway. And those wolves happened to be Yellowstone’s beloved Cottonwood Creek pack.

The NRDC got national media coverage for what they termed that “debacle.” Of course the gaming officials in those states were “shocked” that too many of the wrong wolves were killed. Wrong wolves? Like the NRDC said, “Wolf hunts should not be taking place at all right now.” Yet it looks like almost 40% of the entire population will be killed. Montana isn’t the only culprit.

I’ve posted the deer and elk populations per Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming via their respective government websites. There is no threat of a shortage. One state was over quota for either elk or deer. I blogged about the fact that Michigan has 4,000 of the critters with little problem. Livestock and wild game populations relative to too many wolves just doesn’t muster argument when we look at the facts. The wolves are being hunted for sport. The states hunting the wolves should just admit it.

If Wyoming doesn’t admit it, it’s going to look pretty bad using the lame excuse about wolves threatening game and cattle because BP and EnCana Oil and Gas in Wyoming displaced thousands of game out of their home/habitat, and cattle grazing ground with one of their largest oil and gas projects of 30,000 acres once known as “The Upper Green River Basin.” Not green anymore.

It wasn’t until after the companies were approached by local gov’t. and environmental groups about displacing wildlife, and ruining habitat, that the oil/gas companies wanted to set up a conservation area 20 MILES AWAY at Cottonwood Ranch. It’s working out well for some of the animals that were already migrating to that area but the jury is still out if what is being replaced in any way can make up for robbing that basin that was home to:

[A] major pronghorn migration corridor, sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and burrowing owls, and is used by local ranchers for grazing cattle. According to the Wyoming Outdoor Council, it is also the largest publicly-owned winter range for big game. Hundreds of thousands of moose, elk, and mule deer retreat to the valley during the snowy months.

See what I mean about unfair? Wolves are supposedly being hunted in Yellowstone because their numbers are 2.5 times less than the number of gray wolves in Michigan, and because wolves are supposedly indiscriminate killers of cattle and the game that sportsmen like to hunt. Yet we see here that it’s all right for oil and gas companies to abscond acres of “publicly-owned” habitat stressing populations of the very same game animals especially during brutal winter months. We expect them to just go elsewhere? The cattle that used to graze there are you know what out of luck too.

So there you have it, a double standard. The wolf loses now, and we eventually lose as a nation because Ghandi once said: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” He’s not the only one that got it:

“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.”
–Abraham Lincoln

“I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.”
–Abraham Lincoln

“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.”
–Immanuel Kant

“Until he extends the circle of compassion to all livings things, Man will not himself find peace.”
–Albert Schweitzer

“If all the beasts were gone, man would die from loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast, happens to the man.”
–Chief Seattle

These are only a few quotes. Look how old they are and how far we’ve gone in the opposite direction? We aerial hunt wolves and bear, have canned hunts, Internet hunting, horrible road side zoos, haze wild mustang horses and buffalo with helicopters, purposely poison wildlife in our parks, and our shelters are bulging with abandoned companions. “What happens to beast, happens to man…”

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/jan-june09/wyoming_03-27.html.

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1711&s_src=nrdchpa.

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Posted in Animals and Extinction, Animals in Peril, Endangered Species, Environmentalism, Morality, National Forest, Public Lands, Sport Hunting, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, USFWS, Wolves, Wyoming, Yellowstone Park | 1 Comment »

First the Senate and Now the House Attempts to Block the EPA

February 5th, 2010

First Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) Alaska and a group of Republican Senators and 3 Democrats filed a disapproval resolution to stop the EPA from regulating emissions. She patronized the EPA’s power to do that calling it “back door climate regulations.” The really unnerving thing about her disapproval resolution is that coal lobbyists wrote it. Her belittlement of the EPA’s power flies in the face of the 2007 Supreme Court ruling, and the Clean Air Act, which is law, passed by congress, and upheld by the Supreme Court not some “back door climate regulations.”

Now we have congress people Ike Skelton and JoAnn Emerson (MO), and Colin Petersen (MN), filing a bill in the House to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. It seems Ike has decided all by saying “Simply put, we cannot tolerate turning over the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions to unelected bureaucrats at EPA. America’s energy and environmental policies should be set by Congress.” And further on stated: “This legislation is a guarantee that the EPA will not use its rapidly-expanding powers to enact policies which members of Congress know will create untold hardships in the rest of the country, especially in Missouri.”
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/mo04_skelton/StopEPA.html.

Does Ike know congress approved the Clean Air Act long ago? His alluding to the EPA’s rapid expansion is a real fallacy. The EPA was full of industry people during the Bush Administration and ineffective. Purging the EPA of lobbyists and restoring its power that was upheld by the court in 2007 is not a rapid expansion but a return to normalcy. Funny he wants to overlook that as intolerable all of a sudden.

What he as the people’s representative should find intolerable are representatives both in the house and senate that continually dismiss the law of the land, especially longstanding laws meant to protect the public and allow industry to dictate what should or shouldn’t be followed. Oh, Murkowski flat out admitted to the coal industry’s involvement with her disapproval resolution, but Ike, JoAnn and Colin weren’t without big industry backing either. As house.gov states: “Reps. Skelton and Emerson were joined by representatives of Missouri’s Rural Electric Cooperatives, Missouri’s Municipal Utilities, the Missouri Corn Growers, and the Missouri Soybean Association, among others.”

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Posted in CO2 Emissions, Clean Air Act, EPA, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Federal Government, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Health, Industry, Legislators, Pollution, Protesting Pollution, Science, Supreme Court | 2 Comments »

Heart Attacks Among Young Women on the Rise; Take Your Fish Oil Supplements

February 3rd, 2010

I caught a segment of Good Morning America this week that featured a married woman with 2 children, 12 and 9. She was the picture of health, ran 5 miles a day, ate healthy, and thought she was in the best shape of her life. After lifting something, she got a sharp pain above her elbow, and just thought she pulled something. But her arm continued to get numb. She became lightheaded. She had a heart attack at 39, and ended up in a hospital with 2 stints in her heart.

Well, she survived and was determined to keep her healthy lifestyle. 5 years later she had another heart attack. Now she takes prescription drugs, exercises, eats healthy, and gets CHECKUPS even though there was no previous history of heart problems in her family.

Heart attacks are on the rise among young women, and it looks like it doesn’t matter what shape you’re in. It appears that part of the problem recognizing heart problems in women is that the symptoms are different than a man’s symptoms. It’s not all about tightness across the chest and inability to breath. I was surprised to find that pain in the jaw, or neck is also a symptom. Among other common symptoms is nausea/heartburn, shortness of breath, and real fatigue.

According to GMA, “Women are less likely to get full treatment for heart disease. Researchers are now studying younger women for signs of heart attack. Exercising and eating right helped this woman recover and quickly, but there are steps that she could have taken even further.”

It just so happened that I saw a commercial for fish oil earlier that promised a healthier heart due to the Omega 3’s. But I’ve been hesitant to continue to take fish oil pills due to mercury or other bad juju that might be in there. I try to eat fish, but taking fish oil capsules is so much more efficient. So I looked around to see if anyone did the research to find out. I ran across a NYTimes article that delved into that very subject, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/health/24real.html. According to that article:

Studies have found that most of the widely available supplements contain little or no mercury, dioxins or PCB's. For one thing, most companies use species of fish that are lower on the food chain, like cod and sardines, which accumulate less mercury. And many companies distill their oils to help remove contaminants.

A report by Consumer Lab.com, which conducts independent test of supplements, examined 41 common fish oil products and found none contaminated with mercury or PCB's.

Good to know. I went out an bought fish oil supplements again.

Posted in Fishing, Food, Food Supply Contamination, Health, U.S. Food Supply | No Comments »

Decelerated Global Warming the Past Decade Assumed to be Global Cooling?

February 3rd, 2010

New evidence shows a strong correlation between water vapor in the upper stratosphere and decelerated global warming over the past decade. I’m assuming this deceleration was what many declared to be global cooling. According to a Science Daily website article, “Stratospheric Water Vapor is a Global Warming Wild Card,” there was a 10% drop in water vapor “occurring precisely in a narrow altitude region of the stratosphere” that slowed the acceleration of global warming by 25% during the past decade. As one senior scientist at the NOAA said, “It’s a thin wedge of the upper atmosphere that packs a wallop from one decade to the next in a way we didn’t expect.” Don’t get confused. Global warming continues but within decades there are short-lived fluctuations of climate that may go up or down compared to preceding years. It appears that water vapor does indeed affect that up/down trend.

So the explanation that water vapor is a highly variable gas that plays an important role among greenhouse gases is correct. Back in 2008, scientists declared in another Science Daily article, “[] Water vapor is potent enough to double the climate warming caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117193013.htm.

The only problem here is that scientists do not know why there was a 10% decline in water vapor. And like the title of the article declared it’s a “wild card” in the mix. Things could also get hotter, faster.

Read it: >http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100131145840.htm.

Posted in Global Warming, Science, U.S. Weather Patterns, Weather/Climate | No Comments »

Nice to See a Tribute to the Environment at the Grammies

February 1st, 2010

The Grammies were full of surprises last night, but the tribute to the environment via the tribute to Michael Jackson was a welcome surprise. Jackson’s work “Earth Song” from his 1995 album “History: Past, Present, and Future, Book 1″ was highlighted. The producers didn’t want to go over the medley of songs from Jackson again and chose “Earth Song” instead. It got a standing ovation from a huuuuuge crowd. On top of that viewing was up 35%. Good exposure for the environment.

I found a video of Earth Song on You Tube that’s pretty good, especially the end when everything’s run in reverse. The dead elephant that rises again is a powerful bit.
Watch it.

Posted in Artists for the Environment, Environmentalism, You Tube | No Comments »

Ocean Levels Will Rise Like They Have in the Past; Living on Water’s Edge—Not Good

January 29th, 2010

We’re in the Holocene Interglacial period right now. According to Wikipedia: An interglacial is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature that separates glacial periods within an ice age. For all the deniers that like to point to the fact that climate change we are experiencing now all happened before, well yeah. And glaciers after all formed Michigan, well yeah. But, “sea levels during several previous interglacials were about 3 to as much as 20 meters higher than current sea level.” Oh, oh.

A meter is 39.37 inches, and 3 times that is a little over 118 inches or close to 10 ft. The math for the extreme of 20 meters paints a devastating picture of over 65 ft. My usual comment when someone points to the past cycle of climate events is, “There weren’t 7 billion plus people on earth either.”

Read it all: whttp://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/.

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Posted in Global Warming, Nature, Weather/Climate | No Comments »

2009 Second Warmest Year of Warmest Decade on Record

January 28th, 2010

An article on Environmental News Service website reported: “January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on record. Throughout the last three decades, the GISS surface temperature record shows an upward trend of about 0.2°C (0.36°F) per decade.” James Hansen of NASA went on to say: “There’s a contradiction between the results shown here and popular perceptions about climate trends.” Do ya think?

It’s a good article that addresses a cool 2008 due to the tropical Pacific cooling, and that the Arctic and Antarctic in particular warmed more than the rest of the earth. It also explained that our lower 48 states only comprise 1.5 of the total earth’s surface so our overall temperature doesn’t factor in greatly. Guess that leaves out the notion we can simply rely on the backyard thermometer hanging on the fence as a predictor of climate change, or the ever popular check for wind direction by licking a finger and sticking it up in the air. Check out the graph and you’ll see what I mean. While the variance zig zags up and down accounting for our sometimes hot, sometimes cool summers, the AVERAGE OVERALL global temperature continues to rise.

The article even addressed other issues that account for climate change such as “changes in the sun’s irradiance, oscillations of sea surface temperatures in the tropics, and changes in aerosol levels.” Also factored in was the presence or lack of El Nino or La Nina’s. I’m sure this report addresses far more than that of the first in the 1880’s.

The best part was the following explanation for the lovely Arctic blasts we’ve been getting. I wondered about them and if we’ll be getting more?

The near-record temperatures of 2009 occurred despite an unseasonably cool December in much of North America. High air pressures in the Arctic decreased the east-west flow of the jet stream, while also increasing its tendency to blow from north to south and draw cold air southward from the Arctic. This resulted in an unusual effect that caused frigid air from the Arctic to rush into North America and warmer mid-latitude air to shift toward the north.

So we can look for more of the frigid cold? No happy camper here because there are far too many charges on my heating bill, different pricing per CCF, and the “oh so cheap” natural gas is not.

>http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2010/2010-01-25-03.html.

Posted in Energy, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Natural Gas, Science | No Comments »

The Campaign to Stall Global Warming Policy

January 27th, 2010

I’ve been saying for a while to look for the money motivation behind skeptic’s opinions regarding global warming and a current article in Rolling Stone by Jeff Goodell, titled: “: “As the World Burns,” documents an outright campaign to distort, create a chasm, and stall progress for a greener economy and jobs, jobs, jobs in America. Who would do that? No one stands to gain on the path we appear to be taking more than big oil and coal. We should have done a real heads up and kept them up when Exxon Mobil earned 40.1 billion dollars NET in ONE quarter while we paid high dollar at the pumps. They’re using it to stall everything. The world should wait while they get one last good year in. Then it will be another good year, and another…All the wealth in the country belongs to 1% of the citizenry. That should tell us something.

The cover of the same magazine was quite blunt in trying to tell readers something about the forces preventing progress in the U.S. It was titled in big red letters: “You Idiots! Meet the Planet’s Worst Enemies.” It’s simply white hat, black hat here. Say for instance, I’m a billion dollar corp., and I see that the worldwide competition and sentiment is moving toward cleaning up our acts relative to global warming. I remember Cheney’s 1% doctrine too. It was good enough to reason a war in Iraq. In the context of global warming the 1% doctrine dictates that if there is a 1% chance that we are exacerbating global warming, then we have the duty to combat the source. I see brand new innovation for fuels that looks promising like algae, methane, recycled grease, etc., and I’m reminded that America has always been a leader in innovation. We nurture that type of progress here. As this corporation I have great wealth, clout, and access to the technical ability to choose to:

A. Invest in new innovation while I’m still at the top of the game in the fossil fuel sector. By doing this I insure that I will always be a corporation associated with progress and prosperity well into the future, where I will probably advance and adapt over and over in step with newer technologies as they come up. I am still employing workers in the fossil fuel industry but am setting up programs for job transition in the future. Eventually, I phase out the polluting industry, and become totally vested in the new, and maintain my fortune while continuously providing jobs for old and new employees.

B. Use my money and clout to block progress not only to a cleaner way of life for the world, but also block the chance for all those young, eager, innovative minds to create. I would also block new jobs in a brand new green economy. Heaven forbid anyone finds out these jobs do indeed help boost the economy, and prices for alternatives begin to fall. I would continue to offer only those jobs in polluting industries that ravage the land, air, and water in my own country and eventually the world, as well as, expose workers to an unhealthy working environment. I might also affect the health of those that live in close proximity to my operations. In the end, the world moves forward and I am so far behind. But who cares, I’m still rich.

There you have it, black and white. We see what road corporations are choosing to take The very next article after “As the World Burns” is even better. It’s titled: “The Climate Killers,” and names the top 17 polluters/deniers “derailing efforts to curb global warming,” by Tim Dickinson.

After reading this, the question people should be asking themselves is, “What would have happened if the technology boom was continually stalled? What if there was a massive campaign by old school America to keep us on corded phones forever? All the Silicon Valley innovation, jobs, and even the stock market associated with it would never have been realized. We could use another immediate surge like that in the U.S., and it’s got green written all over it.

Take the time to read the articles. They are important, as the U.S. seems to become ever more increasingly ruled by corporate America

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633532/as_the_world_burns.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633524/the_climate_killers.

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Posted in CO2 Emissions, Coalburners, Environment and Jobs, Environmental Legislation, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Health, Industry, Oil Industry, Oil Lobby, Politics | 2 Comments »

Murkowski Amendment to Thwart EPA Was Written by Coal Lobbyists; Come On!

January 25th, 2010

While all eyes were on Haiti last week, Senator Murkowski (R) Alaska, 35 Republicans, and 3 Democrats from fossil fuel states introduced a disapproval resolution to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Murkowski likes to patronize the EPA’s power to do so calling it “back door climate regulations.” http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/murkowski-seeks-thwart-epa-emission-regulations-again.
.
What??? Stop right there. Massachusetts vs. EPA in 2007 was an epic decision by a conservative Supreme Court to get the ball rolling to curb CO2 emissions. All was passed by congress. The public was well aware of it. A Washington Post article from 2007 is a reminder that the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush EPA for NOT regulating emissions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR2007040200487.html . So how is standing legislation reduced to “back door” politics in just 3 years?

The “back door” tactics should be assigned to Murkowski. She openly stated her concerns for her state being ravaged by climate change in a speech in 2006, but by the end of 2009, Murkowski’s standards changed dramatically. An article titled: “Lisa Murkowski proposes to fiddle while Alaska burns” puts it nicely. http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/21/lisa-murkowski-fiddle-while-alaksa-burns-epa-regulation/.

Ignoring Alaskan fires are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Last week ended with 12-20 ft. waves around Ventura, CA, while mudslides wiped out homes in an area still expecting 3″ of rain along with coastal funnels, 14 tornadoes ripped through Texas in the dead of winter, ice storms ran throughout the Midwest snapping power lines, and the south was expecting heavy storms with possible tornadoes. And I blogged that the earthquake that crushed Haiti was a big one, part of a series of activity that went up and down our California coastline. Yeah it’s a real good time to waylay the EPA from acting to regulate emissions that may be exacerbating our climate problems.

Murkowski fails to connect the dots. But why? My guess is that the coal industry can buy more time for permits and be exempt from future regulations once permitted because another Republican senator changed the language in the Senate Climate Change Bill that would allow these exemptions. Covering the coal industry is key here although Murkowski likes to upset the little guy arguing that EPA regulations will hurt small industry, farms, and such in bad economic times. Gaining momentum depends on getting the little guy on her side. The big guys are already there.

More than just there, two lobbyists for the coal industry wrote Murkowski’s amendment. Murkowski admitted to it. http://www.greendaily.com/2010/01/18/murkowski-partnered-with-big-coal-and-oil-lobbyists-to-attack-th/ .

Lovely. The media hardly mentions Murkowski’s attempt to usurp the judicial branch’s directive, and consequently deny the power of the Clean Air Act, let alone let us know that the coal industry wrote this legislation. This comes on the heels of our Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations can openly support or oppose candidates running in our legislature.

Heck between writing legislation and buying the candidate, I’d say the wealthy (corporate America) have indeed taken over.

More:

http://www.themudflats.net/2010/01/20/tell-murkowski-to-give-back-the-money/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheMudflats+%28The+Mudflats%29.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/us/23memo.html.

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2010/01/21/blanche-lincoln-mary-landrieu-join-republican-effort-to-make-the-environment-worse/.

The Bush EPA http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/07/another-epa-administrator-bites-the-dust/.

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Posted in Alaska, CO2 Emissions, Clean Air Act, Coal, Coalburners, Conservation, EPA, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Extreme Weather in U.S., Global Warming, Industry, Legislators, Science, U.S. Weather Patterns | 4 Comments »

New PC Virus Attacks; Bad JuJu!

January 25th, 2010

Boy, I’ve always run a firewall, and a good virus scan that I automatically update, so I was really surprised to get hit with what was classified as a “severe” pc virus that downed me out all last week.

Microsoft technical support came to the rescue, albeit, 6 days, 10 sessions, 4 with level 2 support, and 2 supervisor interventions, over 6 hours on the phone and relying on remote assistance, and much screaming on my part, “We got er done!”

My thanks to Percival, Supr., who after I screamed over the top of his whole conversation took command and spent 3 1/2 hours scrubbing my laptop and discovering why I got the virus in the first place. I didn’t realize I had a firewall program in my 2Wire router/modem. It was set to extreme and blocked my ability to download Microsoft’s Security Essentials, and possibly the updates to my virus scanner, so…

You don’t have to do anything but get online to get the latest virus, so prevention is best. Update all your scanning systems now and windows users download Security Essentials for the latest protection. There are several viruses out there and I got a combo.

What will happen is a window will get past your pop up blocker that says: Internet Security 2010 detected a virus, blah, blah, blah. It copied Windows colors in a “round” icon for security. Windows security is a “shield” shaped icon. I saw it and simply closed it out. Afterall I was running window’s firewall and scanner.

It came back. I shut down and restarted. There was the pop-up again. It’s a hidden program. There is no removing it. It spreads fast. It hits everything you’re going to go to, i.e., your firewall is shut off, scans get interrupted, you can’t restore, can’t download PC scanner on Microsoft’s website, pretty soon you can’t start up in Safe Mode. I threw Windows Defender at it. It mimicked that window in less than 5 minutes showing up as PC Defender 2010. Microsoft’s Spyware/Malware Removal Tool didn’t work, nor did many, many non Microsoft scrubbers.

But the Microsoft Techs are up to the battle. If you experience any type of pop up about PC security and 2010, go right to Microsoft Support Website and try their PC Scanner FIRST. If no use, get a case number on that website and call Microsoft Tech Support for Viruses and shut down. Don’t let any tech tell you that you have to dump any files. They just don’t want to spend 3 hours going over your PC, but they can do it as long as your desktop is alive. I never needed to reinstall Window’s XP by disc either.

Oh, and they more than likely won’t call you back. If you get to the 5th session just get a supervisor and make sure they take you all the way through downloading Security Essentials. Techs would always leave me with a scan going that ultimately got interrupted and my system would shut down. And I would always have to call back, wait the wait, hear the shpeel, yada, yada, yada.

Do yourself a favor and update your security now.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

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