For all you canine fans – Idaho wolf update

According to the New York Times, “Even as Idaho has sold more than 14,000 wolf-hunting permits, the first 10 days of the first legal wolf hunt here in decades have yielded only three reported legal kills.”

Howl!

posted by Mudd

As reported earlier on this blog (Sept 3), foes of upcoming wolf hunts in the West are putting up their dukes in an effort to halt the game. Also at issue is whether the Feds delisted the Northern Rockies wolves illegally. A gaggle of wolf defenders sued Obama’s honcho (Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior) in order to make their case. As someone who litigated these kinds of cases in a prior lifetime, I can testify that suing Bureaucrats can be fun and worthwhile.

In sum, here’s where we’re at – 1. The hunt can go on as planned, as no “irreparable harm” would befall the wolf population by the gunning down of a few members. 2. The delisting looks seriously suspicious, as the Feds used an arcane and goofy rationale for removing the critter from protection. 3. A final ruling “hangs like the Sword of Damocles.”

The Christian Science Monitor put it like this: “The service has distinguished a natural population of wolves based on a political line, not the best available science. That, by definition, seems arbitrary and capricious,” [Judge] Molloy wrote in his 14-page ruling.

The Obama Administration using politics to monkey wrench a species’ chance at recovery in the wild? Is that green?

Stay tuned. I’m trying to talk the Zephyr’s high-minded Publisher into offering a cash reward for the first person to photograph Sarah Palin making a wolf kill in Idaho. So far no response out of Monsieur Stiles.

On the other hand, I always did have a thing for soccer moms.

posted by Mudd

Breaking news – this just in from the folks at the Telegraph (UK): “Contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies, according to research by the London School of Economics.”

No kidding! Five times cheaper? And think of the diapers you don’t have to wash. (Can we still wash diapers? Is that green?)

Lest uber-conservatives get their nappies in a wad, the report goes on to say that “40 per cent of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.”

What the London School of Economics doesn’t mention is carrying capacity as a function of ecological well-being. Do the math before jumping to conclusions. Better yet, run a few Lotka–Volterra equations, assuming you enjoy piddling with trigonometric functions.

Or, as the old saw says, “Copulate, don’t populate!”

posted by Mudd

How’s this for a snazzy opening salvo? “The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the industry into crisis. The stakes could hardly be higher.” If you focused on the words “sugar pills,” you’re on the right track towards solving a big chunk of the current “health care crisis.”

The quote above, courtesy of Wired Magazine, is from an article entitled Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. And it’s a fun read, indeed. Who knew that a simple (cheap!) hit of fake antidepressant is often as efficacious as the ubiquitous pharmaceutical mind menders? Imagine the savings!

Let’s put a bandage on this blog and end with another spin from Wired’s Steve Silberman – “The placebo response doesn’t care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapist, or a syringe of salt water. All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better. That’s potent medicine.”

“Pass the sugar, I’m feeling blue.”

posted by Mudd

It had to happen, sooner or later. Now our pals at the Discovery Channel have “discovered” a new source of renewable energy to fuel our lawn mowers, blow dryers, and hifi-wifi laptops. You guessed it – watermelons.

As studies point out (as rthey always do), “….each year farmers across the country leave between 20 and 40 percent of their crop to rot on the ground. These are the ugly ducklings of the lot; though perfectly fine on the inside, the misshapen or blemished melons simply won’t sell at the grocery store.”

So, the logical move is to convert the buggers into ethanol, where it will help quench our endless thirst for all things combustible. Of course, the question could be posed – why not make potable alcohol out of all that perfectly good produce? Folks will certainly want it then.

What a great way to kick off Voting Day – free watermelon wine for everybody!

posted by Mudd

Just when you thought it was getting boring out there in Eco-Land, along comes this whiff of autumn pollen from the Blogosphere – “These days, it’s politically incorrect to suggest that going green will require even the slightest adjustment to our way of life, but let’s face it: Jimmy Carter was right. It wouldn’t kill you to turn down the heat and put on a sweater.”

Read all about it, thanks to a lovely piece on NPR entitled Foreign Policy: Seven Myths About Alternative Energy

posted by Mudd

Nature lovers unite! A cougar (aka: Mountain lion) was caught deep inside Seattle’s largest park (where he was feeding on house cats), and is now looking at free trip home.

According to Fox News: “The cougar is a 2 1/2-year-old male, weighs 140 pounds and is in very good health, Capt. Bill Hebner said. Wildlife agents are considering releasing it into the wild in Snohomish County, north of Seattle, he said.”

Capt. Hebner added: “It wasn’t aggressive or stalking people, and it maintained its natural respect for the wild.”

Natural respect for the wild? What a swell idea!

posted by Mudd

Today was a vert bad day for Japanese dolphin killers. No porpoise burgers in lonely Taiji, as the hunt has sputtered out, temporarily, one presumes, as media scrutiny is only good for a few minutes of attention span. And all this because of a documentary called The Cove.

Now if they could just get the Monkey Wrench Gang filmed! “A sad, hilarious, exuberant, vulgar fairy tale…it’ll make you want to go out and blow up a dam” — The National Observer

posted by Mudd

You know times are getting weird when the Neo-Greens descend upon the Royal Bank of Scotland and start “superglueing their hands to the floor of the bank.”

What’s the rub? According to a Plymouth, UK website (The Herald, of course) – “The RBS are investing their money in oil, gas and coal when they should be investing more in sustainable energy. We have to take action – climate change is happening now.”

Which raises the obvious question: Will they glue themselves to President Obama’s floor when they find out about U.S. funding of Brazilian off-shore drilling ?

posted by Mudd

Perhaps you’ve heard of the The Red List of Threatened Species (?). The gang has spent decades tracking species and habitats in an effort to catalog what’s happening out yonder in the Big Outside. And what they found isn’t much fun.

Now, as reported by the erudite BBC, the Red Listers have a new pronouncement to add to an already troubled picture of our natural world – “At least 25% of the world’s mammal species are at risk of extinction, according to the first assessment of their status for a decade.”

Not that we should be shocked by such news; it’s just another piece of flotsam in a sea of dismal data. But the interesting tidbit is that “The biggest threat to mammals is loss of habitat, including deforestation.”

Why is that of note? Because, unlike most stupid human tricks, we can do something about habitat destruction and tree whacking. Of course, the “environmental movement” currently appears myopically focused on one subject – global warming. Which is understandable, in that fund raisers know where the butter meets the bread.

Suggested reading – anything by John Muir, Aldo, Leopold, Reed Noss , or Paul Shepard.

posted by Mudd