Have you heard of the Arctic Goo that may be alive and floating around? It’s like something out of an old Saturday afternoon Sci-Fi movie. Curious observers pulled remnants of a goose out of the goo. It’s dark and seems to stick to the side of melting glaciers. So far no one knows what it is and no one has seen anything like it before.
It’s not small either. According to the Anchorage Daily News: a helicopter followed a strand of the stuff for 15 miles! It’s passing by the North slope. The North Slope in Alaska is home to oil development and is a sore spot for environmentalists since reports about the impact of wildlife in that area are not good. The blob that’s passing by is surmised to be a natural phenomenon, not an oil spill or anything.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if nature produced some sort of glob to even the score for the devastation by the oil industry in that area? The North Slope sits on permafrost. You know the layer of earth that is unthawing rapidly up there. Who knows, the North slope may end up heading south or into the sea where it will meet its match with nature’s Arctic Blob. Funny times we’re in.
Read about it: http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html
I truly believe our democracy is broken at the hands of special interest groups. If we do not get rid of lobbying forever, the good with the bad lobbyists, all of them unfortunately, we will no longer be a nation of the people by the people with resolute honest representation in congress. I say this because I have petitioned, written, called, and donated so much money to efforts to protect our wildlife that I could probably own my own wolf pack, polar bear family, whale, dolphin, etc., yet nothing much happens on their behalf, or the going is so slow as to be baby steps. And in the interim, we lose more wildlife. I know I am not alone. I’ve read more than one place for example that 70% of Alaskans are against the wolf aerial hunting program depicted in my blog today, and that Governor Palin has plans to not only continue the program but to escalate it beyond normal hunting seasons, and to include bears now.
It takes so much activism by citizens of this country to stop atrocities against wildlife and for the preservation of all we hold dear in this country like our peaceful forests and parks against the likes of the NRA and big time hunting consortiums, that I’m beginning to believe America has lost its way. We simply do not present ourselves as a decent, Christian nation any longer. Our talk is cheap. We’re known for our deeds and the picture is not pretty when it comes to wildlife and habitat.
Do we as this supposed Godly nation realize the Lord specifically mentions the word wolf/wolves 13 times in the bible? In every instance He makes it perfectly known that wolves are to exist as predators. They have a purpose and in no way are they to be extinct in the world to come. They will indeed lay down with the lamb.
From a scientific viewpoint, wolves inhabited the U.S. for 750,000 years; one would think that by now in the 21st century we as “the smartest of the animal chain” would have figured out how to live with them. Stop the carnage as seen in the video below:
Science is not a part of Alaska’s wolf hunting program. There is no official wolf count. Alaska only guesses as to how many wolves it has or has not. To continue to escalate a hunting program like this with no clear figures as to how little or much the wolf populations there are being decimated is criminal.
What’s with all the threatening volcanoes lately? Over the weekend news about Mt. Redoubt in Alaska that threatened the most populated area around Anchorage, was followed by England’s unusually cold winter with the most snow in 18 years. While, this morning 3 different volcanoes in Japan are spewing, as well as a Mt. Karymsky in Russia!
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So far, so good. No one is hurt. Ash spitting volcanoes can swamp a city to its rooftops. It’s like an impure avalanche that just blankets people, houses, and streets, and adds to earth’s dilemma. Volcanic activity adds to the ozone effect, the greenhouse effect, and haze effect where particulates partially block the sun causing an overall cooling. In other words, while they may be a good belch for the earth, they are not good for the environment or us.
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Researchers also recently found that volcano activity tends to cool the tropics for years afterward. The 20th century didn’t have too much volcanic activity, and global warming may have stopped that cooling as well as squelch some volcanoes from belching.
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I think that it’s only logic that as scientists work together worldwide and compile their findings about climate change relative to gulf streams, water surface temps, ice melt, drought, rainfall, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc., we will find that the impact on each other is greater than we once thought, and that the whole thing can indeed be thrown off kilter by excess or lack of component parts of the whole, like gases.Â
This is pretty gruesome to watch but I think it’s necessary to see the unethical, unfair sport of aerial hunting that has been promoted throughout Alaska by Sarah Palin. It is from Defenders of Wildlife.
This policy has basically fueled the wolf hunting program in Idaho. Why Idaho?
Check out this list:
Dirk Kempthorne is former governor of Idaho and rushed into his appointment by Bush as Secy. of the Interior.The Secy. of Interior is over the USFWS.
Matthew J. Hogan, the former chief lobbyist for Safari Club International, is Acting Director of the USFWS.
Safari Club International, according to sourcewatch.com, consistently lobbies against the intent of the Endangered Species Act.
Butch Otter, governor of Idaho, is known for his desire to be the first person to take a shot at a wolf.
Sarah Palin graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987. She is the biggest catalyst in Alaska, along with SCI, for aerial hunting as a method for predator management—wolves.
What is it with Idaho and their bloodthirst for wolves? Less wolves more hunting for people? What a totally unfair premise. It’s also a stupid act as it goes against a healthy balanced ecosystem. Wolves take care of the ever growing population of coyotes many people continue to mistake for wolves as one in the same. They are not. Coyotes are scavengers. They are usually killed by wolves for intruding on the wolves’ food. If hunting is used to replace the wolves, there will be little to no carcasses left for coyotes. Coyotes will begin to come into people’s yards as their population grows and wolf populations diminish from overkill. I had a lady comment elsewhere that people in Vermont are sympathetic to wolf hunts, and proceeded to tell me about problem coyotes in her yard. See what I mean?
Also, rangers in Yellowstone Park presented a pro-wolf video for Public TV that I watched. They showed all of the new tree, shrub, and grassy areas that were evolving because the wolves were balancing the overabundance of deer and elk that kept eating particular plant species to the ground. Over a course of time, one area went from a predominantly grassy plain to what appeared to be the beginning of a forest.
Obviously, hunting was unable to control the abundant population of deer, elk, and other vegetarian mammals.
Watch the video if you can. I could not. I do not call this hunting, and neither do real hunters. There is a place for legitimate hunting in America. This is not legitimate, nor is the reason for predator control in the extreme like aerial hunting.Elk and deer populations in Idaho are beyond their limits based on state’s records. And Palin’s pressure to continue excessive hunting of wolves via plane/helicopter in Alaska as a form of predator management to preserve elk and caribou populations, is a complete contradiction to the detrimental outcome of elk and caribou populations within ANWR if drilling is allowed.
As someone with a daily environmental blog, I’m more than interested in Sarah Palin. Environmentalists have known about Palin for quite some time. And it’s those environmental groups that were targeted first for attempting to protest at the RNC.
There is much footage out there of the emptied EarthJustice bus of protestors left by the side of the road by the Minneapolis police. It appears to be overkill and ridiculous with at least 10 police cars surrounding the bus as if it carried felons escaping prison. What a display of force to stop protestors for the environment. From many accounts, the Republicans had plants inside of these types of groups to report what, when, and how they would be going about protesting at the convention in order to stop them from reaching their destination. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/31/raids/.
This is frightening for the U.S.A. More news has shown up on video on websites of outright abuse. One article stated that 3 homes where protestors were staying were entered by police SWAT teams. Citizens banned for peacefully assembling in protest, especially before they do so is a direct hit on our constitutional rights and perpetrated by our own federal government. SWAT teams? Just a tad bit of overkill. Obama’s bigger convention didn’t utilize SWAT teams or infiltrators. When I saw a GOP rep head butt, yes, head butt an ABC reporter, well, how juvenile, not to mention mean.
It’s not right. Without protestors, many citizens are being denied, albeit short term, the facts of Palin’s horrible environmental decisions and her ruthless record of predator management, which is the aerial killing of wolves.Besides that, the state of Alaska under Palin sued the USFWS to keep the polar bear off the endangered list stating that their numbers have increased and they are a stable population.
I’ve already given the definition of endangered in another blog. The meaning should resonate with Palin since she has a BA in journalism and knows well that it means: “exposed to danger.” If anything could be more exposed to danger it would be the wildlife of Alaska under Palin and her buddies (SCI) Safari Club International who believe it’s their right to hunt any animal, endangered or not. SCI still pushes to allow hunting polar bears.
Palin stands strong against lobbyists, maybe, but only the lobbyists of her choice, because on the other hand she sought millions in earmarks for Wasilla, Alaska. Environmentalists have known that she’s bad news for our environmental future with a script right out of the mouths of big oil—drill more.
As a Democrat, I couldn’t be happier with this pick. I had to laugh when it was said her campaign for governor was run on “ethics.” OMG!
Wait until the large environmental groups disclose her ethics.For example Rodger Schlickeisen of Defenders of Wildlife issued this statement already about Palin’s destructive environmental policies:
“Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.”
To be to the right of the Bush/Cheney regime is a scary thought. That’s pretty far out there. Sarah Palin is a scary thought for wildlife. Alaska’s predatory management program is barbaric. I recently blogged about 14 wolf cubs shot in the head on the spot after an illegal stakeout by Alaskan Wildlife Agency employees? Bears have been added to the predatory list now. Funny how wolves and bears have always been a part of the Alaskan landscape, but now they are intolerable. Animals in Alaska do not have a friend at the governor’s house.
I don’t think Sarah likes living things as much as money. That will come out sooner or later. Cruelty is not a nice trait to see in a woman.
Sad to say, despite door-to-door grass root efforts that got 75,000 voters in Alaska to the polls to vote to permanently stop the aerial assault on wolves, the initiative failed.
Those lovely guys at Safari Club International, who think it’s their right to shoot and kill just about ANYTHING, lobbied for the kill, and talk about a pro-active government/lobbyist relationship in Alaska. Coldhearted Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska paved the way and added $400,000 out of the state’s coffers to keep the kill going. After Ted Steven’s indictment, I think everyone should direct more attention toward Alaska.
The reason the assault on wildlife continues, is that sport hunting is a main industry in Alaska, therefore, Alaska will slaughter predators to preserve that game for humans to hunt for fun and Alaska’s profit. But the predator management system is out of control according to residents of Alaska. http://www.wolfsongnews.org/news/Alaska_current_events_1626.htm
It looks like the taste of blood is irresistible after all. The current predator management in Alaska includes bears too. Are we going to start killing the bears because they eat too many salmon and it interferes with sport fishing?
What I want to know is what are the great white hunters are going to kill when the population of critters is diminished not only by hunting but by loss of habitat from industry and global warming, and the many diseases that are going to crop up in the future as a result?
People are already being hunted. I posted a blog about hunting albino human beings in Tanzania. And the bushmeat trade is near cannibalism in my book.
It’s as if the example we’ve been given over the past decade by the Bush/Cheney group has infiltrated our spirit here in America, and the example continues off of our shores. How are we to tell Canada not to club baby seals, or Japan to quit whaling and butchering dolphins, when we’re slaughtering our own wildlife everywhere? And everyone knows it’s for the MONEY!
This type of cruelty is a growing concern to me. If we have a generation of kids that never enjoy nature by stepping away from the Internet long enough to go outside, it’s not hard to imagine that empathy, sympathy, and responsibility for nature, all the traits that are supposed to put humans a step above the animals, will be gone
If this cruelty continues against innocent wildlife, where a hunter can just walk up to a den of small pups and plug each one in the head with a bullet without flinching, my prediction that seniors will live in gated communities in the future for safety sake is just a generation away.
We must break the growing cycle of cruelty against nature for our own human sake.
I just did a blog about our becoming accumstomed to violence, killing, and guns. Then I read my e-mail that STATE WILDLIFE AGENCY PERSONNEL in Alaska illegally staked out a breeding den/area for wolves, and aerial shot and killed 14 of them. The wolves were parents to 14 little pups. They shot all the pups in the head at close range.
View this video of 4 week old wolf pups and imagine plugging the cute little things in the head. It takes a heartless person to do this.
On the same website as the video, I read about people adopting wolf cubs, and even potty training wolf cubs. This is counter to the image of wolves as blood thirsty, indiscriminate killers.
The big execution in Alaska was to boost caribou populations. There are approximately 950,000 caribou in Alaska. How many caribou do we need? What’s the target, a million?
Alaskans are outraged over this aerial killing movement and are moving to “end the Board of Game’s barbaric aerial hunting of wolves through a ballot measure,” according to Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders website has a drive that ends today to help this ballot initiative with new ads. It also said that: “On August 26th voters can pass this ballot measure and band this awful practice before another deadly season begins.”
Defenders of Wildlife is “helping Alaskans for Wildlife, a coalition of local grassroots activists, hunters, and citizens who secured the 55,000 signatures to put this measure on the ballot. Already, they have reached thousands of voters across the state with their hard-hitting mailings.”
Collecting 55,000 signatures is a daunting task in the heart of hunting territory like Alaska, but everyone involved is close to meeting their goal of collecting $80,000 and running ads that will get voters out to vote for this ballot measure. The ads essentially say, “Real hunters don’t shoot wildlife from airplanes.”
I think aerial hunting is gutless. I also think shooting helpless pups is heartless. And I’m starting to think humans need to be kept in check more than animal populations. We’re starting to show our animalistic tendencies far too much, forgetting about empathy and compassion for all living things in our world.
Alaska’s Ted Stevens, longest serving Republican in the senate, was indicted on seven charges for his connections with VECO, an oil services company, and the renovations done to his home.
Ted is pro-oil, and we see why. VECO CEO Bill Allen pleaded guilty to bribing Alaskan lawmakers. And Ted has been accused of influence peddling. So we have an admitted briber, and a guy who invites it. So now Ted’s been indicted for lying about his dealings with VECO.
Ted has consistently put ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) drilling language in defense bills. Remember the recent Senate hearings with oil execs about high gas prices in relation to excessively high profits? We can thank Ted, the Chairman of that committee, for preventing them from having to speak under oath.
Senator Stevens is best remembered for financing two Alaska bridges to nowhere to a tune of over $220 million. A fiasco that had Ted threatening to quit the senate if congress took money away from those bridges. The moneyfor them would have been redirected for repairs desperately needed in New Orleans afer Katrina. Stevens got his way, but the bridge money was given to Alaska’s transportation fund instead.
But Ted’s mid 80’s age and this haven’t stopped him. He’s put in his bid to run for senate again. This is not the way to top off a long career.
Democrats want Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, in the race. Begich is the favorite. Alaska could use someone environmentally friendly for a change. If they could just get rid of Governor Palin, Alaska might stand a chance at remaining a pristine wilderness.
After this, maybe Senator Waxman, who is investigating everyone, and doing a fine job of doing his job by the way, should direct more attention to the goings-on in Alaska and why so many are protesting.
Read more of Stevens bio at: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Stevens
And the race is on. Alternatives or the same ole polluting solutions until we’re extinct. Looks like Washington isn’t waiting around for anyone’s opinion. The oil people are getting their dibs in while they can. We won’t see any of that oil for years but hey why not?
The wealthy are starting to polish their crowns in front of us.
