In an effort to out-silly the geo-engineering crowd, a group of White Lab Coat guys are promoting a savvy new twist in the Climate Change Game –“….a controversial strategy called “managed relocation”.

It appears that rapid global warming poses a threat to various critters who simply won’t be able to leave town fast enough to avert extinction. And, of course, “managed relocation” will do what it sounds like it will do – relocate species into “accommodating habitats.”

As the Environmental News Network tell us “Managed relocation has been rejected by some scientists who fear the relocated species could overpopulate a new area and cause local organisms to become extinct.” No kidding!

Planetary engineering – dumb-ass idea of the weak.

posted by Mudd

Some folks honestly believe that fish farms (aka: aquaculture) are, in the parlance of the day, “sustainable.” Which is sort of like saying that backyard, jungle-style, cocaine processing is sustainable. Fish farms may be efficient producers of cheap protein, but they appear about as sustainable as GM’s preferred bonds.

With that introduction, it’s interesting to note that the Obama Administration has “declined to block a plan that opens federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico to large-scale commercial fish farming, despite concerns from some fishing and environmental advocates.”

Jim Balsiger, the acting NOAA wonk for fisheries, added this quaint data into the mix: “Eighty percent of the seafood we eat is imported, and about half of that is farmed…” So if we can’t beat em, let’s join em, eh Jim?

Not to worry, NOAA plans to reply on protective “national guidelines the agency hopes to draw up within months.” Nothing like getting out in front of the ball where the environment is concerned.

What’s a poor shrimp to do? According to that bastion of sustainability, Time Magazine – “To create 1 kg (2.2 lbs.) of high-protein fishmeal, which is fed to farmed fish (along with fish oil, which also comes from other fish), it takes 4.5 kg (10 lbs.) of smaller pelagic, or open-ocean, fish.”

Forgetting the antibiotics, “the destruction of coastal habitats through waste disposal, the introduction of diseases and the possible escape of exotic species that can threaten indigenous breeds,” (Time), most monkeys can do the math here – fish farms are anything but sustainable. That is, if your goal is to actually sustain our planet’s native ecosystems, habitats, indigenous species, and natural processes. But maybe we’re talking about sustaining something else?

Oh – say, can you see? The hacks up yonder in Washington need to get out of their cubicles more often. (Calling all bureaucrats – Nature is anything but abstract data, computer models, or policy papers.)

Perhaps it’s time to rethink sustainability, the most abused word in our nation’s political language. Industrial farming is about inputs, outputs, and efficiency. Just because you move an industrial farm into the deep blue sea doesn’t change the nature of the beast.

Or, as Mr. Byrne once said: “Same as it ever was.”

posted by Mudd

“Wolf hunting season opened Tuesday in the state of Idaho.” NPR

posted by Mudd

Let’s hear it for the folks at High Country News. Or, at least for Susan Tweit, who recently had this to say about the human footprint(s) – “There are too many of us. The world’s human population has reached nearly 6.7 billion, twice as many people as there were 50 years ago; we’re adding another million humans about every four days.”

It’s always fun to discover a “mainstream” media outlet willing to acknowledge the bottom line.

And while you’re at it, read the rest of Tweit’s essay. It’s about one of my favorite subjects – roadkill.

posted by Mudd

In a fit of giddiness, the folks at Grist.org ask the proverbial question – “Could we replace the nation’s pavement with solar panels?”

Answer: Fixing pot holes appears to be headache enough.

But instead of driving down the road to nowhere, here’s something more fun to chew on.

posted by Mudd

In a moment of sheer lucidity, our friends at the BBC report that “As the human population grows it has reached the point, the UN says, ‘where the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available’.”

Hand those dudes a Keen Sense of the Obvious Award!

The report illustrates that “Sixteen thousand species are threatened with extinction. Habitat loss is a major factor as many forests are cleared for agriculture. The UN estimates the global annual loss of primary forest is 50,000 km2.” What’s up with that? Are we talking toilet paper here, or the wholesale conversion of forests to soybean fields (aka: pig slop)?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Homo erectus asphaltus is making a mess of the planet. Even forgetting global warming (if you can) for a minute, the road to a hell of our own making is being paved right before the fogged lenses of our collective cornea.

Let’s rap this up with a pithy remark from the BBC – “[A]ccording to the UN’s latest Global Environment Outlook report, long-term problems including climate change, pollution, access to clean water, and the threat of mass extinctions are being met with ‘a remarkable lack of urgency’.” A remarkable apathy is more like it.

If you can say Overshoot, you’re way ahead of the game.

Maybe that should read: Overshot.

posted by Mudd

Nothing gets the gum-flapping started faster that the subject of death. At least where said death is a conscious decision, as opposed to the “natural” kind most of us are (or will be) familiar with.

Take Montana, for example. Up yonder in Big Sky Country, there’s a serious bad-ass debate going on about whether an ordinary citizen has the right to die with a wee bit of medical assistance. You remember Dr. Jack Kevorkian? If so, you’re already up to speed on the sort of brouhaha we’re talking about. (How could you forget the Thanatron?)

Of course, Dr. Jack didn’t hang out in Montana, a state that’s anything but your typical American bee hive. In fact, Montana is downright funky! (If you’ve had the trout tacos at the Pine Creek Lodge, you know what I’m talking about; makes me hungry just thinking about em).

Chew on this tasty tidbit from the Montana State Constitution – “The dignity of the human being is inviolable.” And what’s more dignified than deciding your own fate, even if that decision includes a wild leap into the Great Unknown? “When the pain outweighs the gain, why remain?” as the old saw goes.

Of course, the New York Times has a heap to say about this latest wrinkle in the death by choice saga. Which you can read here.

But before we leave this thorny debacle for smoother waters, let’s glance one more time at that Montana Constitution — “All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. They include the right to a clean and healthful environment and the rights of pursuing life’s basic necessities, enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and seeking their safety, health and happiness in all lawful ways.”

Do you see what I see? A right to a clean and healthful environment? Seriously? Calling Al Gore!

I’m packing my bags; if you need me, I’ll be eating fish tacos in the Land of the Buffalo.

posted by Mudd

This just in from the Christian Science Monitor – “I don’t know that there’s very many people in the world who want to kiss, love, hug, lick, touch, and talk to sandstone,” says 89-year-old Katie Lee, as she sums up the loss she felt when the 170-mile Glen Canyon in Arizona was dammed in 1965.

Turns out – Ms. Lee might get her chance to do some old fashioned sandstone licking pretty soon, assuming Lake Powell continues to evaporate into the wild blue yonder. Or, at least that’s the premise of a new tome on the subject by author Annette McGivney. The book’s called “Resurrection: Glen Canyon and a New Vision for the American West.”

Read all about it!

And if Nature can’t seem to get the job done, there’s always Abbey’s vision.

Have wrench, will travel.

posted by Mudd

Just in case you were wondering, our pals at NPR have discovered a new and exciting spin on global warming – “Scientists are surprised to discover that a gas produced mainly in agriculture is doing more to damage the Earth’s ozone layer than synthetic chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons.”

And that gas is? Why, laughing gas, of course!

What we have here is (yet) another reason to rethink man’s most environmentally destructive enterprise – agriculture. Stay tuned…..

posted by Mudd

For those of you who love Westerns (and who doesn’t?), here’s today’s Western of the Week – The Hired Hand.

Starring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, and Verna Bloom. Here’s how the IMDB describes the film’s plot – “Peter Fonda is riding again… To the woman he lost … for the revenge he craves!” But don’t that fool you; this is a Western’s Western, complete with a temporality that would cause delirious tremens in even the most composed Spaghetti Western Director.

An added feature is the film’s dastardly good sound track, composed and played by Bruce Langhorne. You’ll remember him from his days as a side-man for a young Bob Dylan – from whence he got his nick name: Mr. Tamborine Man.

Saddle up the palomino!

posted by Mudd