Lula Creates New Indigenous Zones

Making good on campaign promises, President Lula da Silva of Brazil announced the creation of six new ancestral lands covering nearly 800 square miles, two of the largest are in the Amazon rainforest.  The creation of these ancestral regions protects them from commercial exploitation.  The zones remain under the control of the Brazilian government, but guarantees that indigenous may use the land in their traditional manners.  Mining is prohibited, and commercial farming and logging require specific permits.  The indigenous movement endorsed Lula's actions.  The government pledged to create fourteen new zones in January.  Leaders from those regions that missed receiving a demarcation, urged more action. 

The Amazonas state is the location of the largest demarcation.  Nadöb people's reserve is expanded by 37% to 2100 sq miles of primary rainforest.  It takes four days to travel from the main village to the nearest city by motorized canoe.  Their chief told the AP by telephone that the new designation will make his people feel safe and protected in their ancestral home.  Indigenous demarcation were halted under the government of Jair Balsonaro.  Studies have shown that indigenous preserved forest are the best preserved in the Brazilian Amazon. Under Balsonaro's government, deforestation grew by 195%.  The eastern Amazon rainforest destruction has become so extensive that it is now a net emitter of carbon dioxide instead of a carbon sink.

TWIT: The Other Side of the V

credit: M. Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two developments this week are worthy of posting here.  First, Fulton County DA Fani Willis has given law enforcement personnel a "heads up" in a letter stating indictments coming between July 11th and September 1st "may provoke a significant public reaction.” Clearly to US Person this means Hair Trumpillini will be indicted for a crime for the second time this year.  It is unlikely that the indictment of Rudy Guilliani or Sidney Powell would give rise to such possible political protest. Fani wrote in her letter,  “Please accept this correspondence as notice to allow you sufficient time to prepare the Sheriff’s Office and coordinate with local, state and federal agencies to ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public,” Willis wrote to Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat. (copy here). Similar letters were handed to Atlanta's Chief of Police and the Director of Emergency Services.  

The Ochre Menace has called for public demonstrations against what he claims are baseless charges.  Ms. Willis must have taken notice of the preparations made by law enforcement in New York prior to his indictment for falsifying business records to cover up a payoff to an adult film star.  Police barricaded and closed streets surrounding the Manhattan courthouse as well as the route from LaGuardia to Trump Tower and the justice center.   Just prior to Trumpillini's brief appearance to be booked and enter a plea, several courtrooms were also closed.

Second, Jack Smith is moving ahead with his multi-faceted investigation of the attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States. Can you believe that sentence?  Former VP Mike Pence testified to the grand jury after months of delay and litigation over privilege claims.  Claims of executive and legislative privilege by both Pence and his former boss were rejected by federal courts. The latest came on Wednesday night when the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Pence to testify.  Pence's testimony under oath, which lasted seven hours, no doubt closely followed what he revealed in his memoirs about conversations with Defendant Trump just prior to the insurrection on January 6th.  But it is important to the case against Trumpilini that Pence's testimony be on the record under oath. Trumpilini pressured Pence to reject slates of electors during the vote count on January 6th, but he refused to do so allegedly telling the would be dictator, “Mr. President, I don’t question there were irregularities and fraud,” Pence wrote that he told Trump. “It’s just a question of who decides, and under the law that is Congress.” He at least got that part correct--there was no material fraud affecting the election.

One key witness remains to be examined under oath: former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.  Meadows was also at the center of the plot to subvert the election of 2020.  He may face his own culpability for his conspiracy with Defendant Trump--on the other side of the V in United States v. Trump et al.  Whether Jack Smith will offer him a deal to testify against his ring-leader is definitely a viable question.  Meadows has escaped sworn scruitiny so far by partially cooperating with the January 6th committee's investigation. His testimony could be the final straw that breaks Individual One's remaining plausible legal defense of no corrupt intent.

credit: Deering, Arkansas Democrat Gazette

An Organic Coffee Partnership

B'lann people living in Mindanao, Philippines have an unusual and lucrative partnership with the wild palm civet(Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) living on the slopes of Mt. Matutum. For two decades they have been gathering coffee beans that have excreted by the civet in the forest. While it sounds unappetizing, the civet bean coffee brew can be sold for up to $80 a cup in markets like the US. Called balos by the native people, the civet is native to the protected forested slopes of the Mt. Matutum in Cotabato Province. While it looks something like a cat or large weasel, the animal is a distinct family, Viverridae. Villagers once killed them for food or because they preyed on chickens and crops, until they understood that the civets were figuratively laying the golden egg in the form of wild coffee beans. The Buan clan now protect the civets, hoping they will poop more coffee beans. Theire noturnal wandering also help the forest since they spread seeds of various plants, not just coffee. This partnership is mutually beneficial since the civet are free to live naturally and are not caged as in some Asian communities.

An Oxford University research group found in January that caged civets in a Balinese coffee plantation oriented towards the tourist trade were cruelly treated with their captors failing to meet basic animal welfare needs. Studies have found high mortality rates among captive civets. In a Buan hamlet known as Purok 8, civets are reverred for their economic contribution to the human community. Anyone found abusing a civet for the first time is fined $100, a considerable sum, while subsequent offenses could merit explusion from the community, a sort of death penalty for a tribe member.

Civet coffee, known ascopi luwakin Indonesia has a distinctive flavor since the animal picks the ripest fruits to eat, and its stomach enzimes and acids alter the coffee bean's chemical structure. Civets usually excrete the seeds in the morning before they sleep during the day. Villagers go out at dawn to collec the pooped seeds from the forest floor. If the seeds are not collected they grow into new coffee bean trees, repopulating the protected forest. Most of the coffee growing on Mt. Matutum is of the arabica variety, which prefers shady environments. Mt. Matutum's forests have been protected since 1995. The area comprises about 38,500 acres of which 7400 acres is still primary forest. At least 81 bird species have been documented living in the forests including rare endemic species such as the Mindanao lorikeet and bleeding heart dove. One hundred fifty four plant species have been identified. Headwaters of five major rivers arise on the mountain. Since civet hunting has stopped, other mamals such as deer, wild pigs and monkeys have also increased in number.

A local pastor was instrumental in bringing the gourmet coffee market to villagers in the mid 2000s. About 124 acres of coffee farms existed in the 1980s, but that has increased to 1240 acres now. Seventy percent of the coffee produced comes from the wild source. The cleaned civet beans marketed as "Kafe Balos" bring about $40.50/lb at the local market compared to $7.25/lbs for cultivated beans. With increasing income from the sale of gourmet coffee, villagers can afford to buy appliances, motorbikes and build improved houses. A villager called the civet poop, "their pot of gold". In order to protect it, forest rangers regularly patrol the area. Unprotected forests suffer from slash and burn agriculture, poaching and illegal logging. The B'lann coffee culture is a win-win for nature and humans, so look at this video to know more:

TWIT: Flipping Season

credit: E. Wexler
BC Idonwanna sez:  They call him "Tiny"

More: The Georgia case against Trump has just escalated to include possible racketeering (RICO) charges after discovered communications between Trump soldiers Jim Penrose and Doug Logan reveal plans to use hacked data from voting machines in Coffee County to capture the US Senate. They considered using the confidential data to affect the Senate runoff election in Georgia. That contest insured Democratic control of the Senate. A Repugnant county official in Georgia and operatives working with an attorney for Trump spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office the day it is known to have been breached.

There is reporting that Trumpilini was present in a White House meeting when this hacked data was discussed. Trump made three phone calls to Georgia officials seeking to overturn the state's election results. Georgia state elections board has asked the FBI to participate in the investigation of the conspiracy because of the similarities to data breaches that occurred in Antrim County, Michigan and Clark County, Nevada. Another conspirator, Phil Waldron, texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on December 23rd about efforts in Arizona to obtain election machine data blocked by a state judge. Waldron wrote Meadows Arizona was, "our lead domino we were counting on to start the cascade,” referring to similar efforts in other states. 

One member of the Georgia special grand jury who was interviewed by the Atlanta Constitution newspaper promised that their findings were going to come out, and that they would be "massive". Apparently  that promise is becoming reality. The truth is that Trump orchestrated a multi-faceted, nationwide plot to overturn the results of the presidential election, which ended in the storming of the Capitol--an assault on democratic process never attempted before in our history.  What is more astounding is that he told us beforehand he would not accept defeat. His name will live in infamy.

{21.04.2023} The good news this week is that some of the corps of fake electors may be flipping to testify before the regular grand jury in Georgia that has the authority to indict Trump. It is a pretty sure bet that the special grand jury named Trumpillini as a violator of Georgia election law after he pressured state officials to find him enough votes to win the state.  Evidence that some Trump electors may be inclined to testify against the conspiracy to steal the election is indirect, but persuasive.

This week Fani Willis made a motion to disqualify the lawyer representing ten fake electors on the grounds that more than one of them has provided testimony that others may have also violated Georgia law. Attorney Kimberly Denbrow would have a disqualifying conflict of interest in such a situation.  Willis has apparently interviewed these witnesses on April 12 and 14th. She has been noticeably quiet about her case since telling the presiding judge of the special grand jury that indictments are "imminent" back in January.  One man's imminent is another's not so fast.

Many of the fake electors are Repugnant Party insiders. In at least five states including Georgia that Joe Biden won, they signed certificates stating they were the duly elected presidential electors for their state. Some were told they merely needed to preserve legal challenges, others had knowledge of Trumpillini's January 6th plotting. Testimony from witnesses with inside information would clinch an indictment of the Ochre Menace for much more serious election interference compared to paying off a porn star and attempting to cover up the payment by violating campaign finance laws.

Government Helping in Iowa

MAGA types love to rage against "big government" but Iowa farmers in Polk County are loving the help they are getting from the county. Nitrate laden runoff from agricultural fields is a big environmental problem. In fact the runoff from upstream has created a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. If that boggles your mind remember that river valleys like the Mississippi are huge basins that catch and collect water including water polluted with nitrogen fertilizers. These chemicals make the corn grow tall, but half the state's rivers and streams are uninhabitable and undrinkable because of contaminated runoff. Fertilizers encourage algae growth that depletes disolved oxygen and reduces clarity. Not only fertilized fields create the problem, but concentrated livestock feeding is also a big contributor.

There is a simple solution to the problem, however. Bioreactors made from wood chips are cheap and relatively easy to bury, and they work filtering out nitrates before they reach a stream or river. Numerous studies have shown that bioreactors filter out half or more nitrates from runoff. Polk County is making it even easier for farmers who detest "woke" by handling the installations for the farmer and contributing $1000 per site. Installations of the low-tech solution have skyrocketed there because who doesn't like free money?

However, Iowa has 10 million acres of tile-drained farmland. "Tile" refers to plastic drainage pipe used to drain fields making them suitable for planting. Clay tiles were once used for this purpose, hence the name. In their quest for greater yields, farmers tend to overspray nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers under a misconception that more is better. Excessive fertilizer use has caused dead waterways and blue babies due to lack of oxygen. The conservative state's legislature has consistently refused to require reducing contaminated runoff despite Iowa being the biggest contributor to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Relying on voluntary actions is clearly not working--enter Polk County's incentive program.

Polk is home to the capital, Des Moines. The nitrogen pollution problem came to a head there when the city went to court because it was forced to pay millions to filter water taken from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers for drinking.  The suit against three northwest counties (upstream) was predictably dismissed. The city then turned to a cooperative approach with agricultural groups to help reduce the pollution problem.   It made an offer the farmers could not refuse. Even political opponents endorse the incentive program.  

Environmentalists are generally appreciative of the incentive initiative, but they say it has to be implemented on a much grander scale.Thousands of stream side barriers and bioreactors are needed to significantly reduce nitrogen pollution. Cost of a robust program including cover crops and no-till practices could be $4 billion according to a study in 2017. Wetland restoration is another solution, but even more expensive. This approach has the added benefit of providing wildlife habitat that has been destroyed by fence to fence industrial agriculture. One thing is clear: Iowa has to clean up its act. [photo credit: AP]

Want to help birds who have lost their homes in Iowa and all over the Midwest?Make a contribution to the National Audubon Society. US Person thanks you!

COTW: Fox Lies and Creates Fear

"a hate for profit racket"

Shot ringing the front door bell while black: the latest insanity to come across from the MAGAverse  What causes such irrational fear?  Perhaps 24/7 paranoia emanating from a Murdoch-owned TV station could be a contributing factor. $787.5 million is not enough for wrecking our democracy.  For Murdoch it is just the cost of doing business.  Please LOOK at this chart and get a grip:

source: FBI

Germany Shuts Last Nuclear Power Plants

Making good on a pledge made after the Fukushima disaster, the German government shut its last remaining nuclear power plants on Saturday. Emsland, Neckarwesthelm II and Isar II were the last operating plants to close after decades of anti-nuclear protests. Unforntunately the end of nuclear power in Germany has seen an increase in the use of fossil fuels and importation of electricity from abroad. Barvaria's conservative governor criticised the move by socialist Chancellor Olaf Schultz. Schultz extended the deadline for closure once after fuel prices spiked when Putin invaded Ukraine. James Hansen, a US climate scientist urged in a letter to Schultz to keep the plants running. 

Closing the plants will make the search for alternative fuels more intense as Germany plans to be carbon neutral by 2045. New nuclear power plants have continued to run into schedule delays and cost overruns. Hinkley Point C in Sommerset, United Kingdom is an example. That facility, if it is completed, will provide 7%s of the UKs electrical generation. The country intends to be carbon neutral by 2050. 

Despite the confidence the UK places in nuclear power, many countries have stopped building them due to high costs. Hinkley C is projected to cost $30 billion, but is already $8 billion over budget and has suffered delays due to labor shortages and supply chain issues. France's Flamanville 3, similar to Hinkley Point C, is several times over its original budget and has experienced several schedule setbacks. Georgia's Vogtle facility began operations this year in Reactor 3, but only after its original builder, Westinghouse, went bankrupt. Reactor 3 was expected to begin comercial production by 2016. Reactor 4 is expected to come on-line in 2024. The original cost estimate for 3 and 4 was $14 billion; the estimate is now more than $30 billion.  [photo credit AP: Neckarwesthelm II]

Faced with such daunting intial capital investments, private companies have turned away from large scale nuclear plants, and there is little public support for governments to become involved.  In contrast, renewable sources that cost much less doubled in capacity worldwide between 2020 and 2021. The share of worldwide nuclear powered electricity production has dropped to 9.8%, down from its peak of 40% in 1996. Germany now faces expensive decommissioning and the unsolved problem of radioactive waste disposal accumulated during 62 years of operations, as does the United States, Japan and others. NIMBY problems abound, but the German government says the energy once provided by fission can be replaced with sustainable forms of energy production.

North American Bats at Risk

A new report, the inaugural report from the North American Bat Conservation Alliance, says that roughly half of the continent's 154 bat species are at risk of population declines.  Bats are particularly valuable to ecosystems as insectivores, pollinators and seed dispersers. Bats even draw tourists to Austin, Texas which boasts an urban  Mexican free tail population that roosts under a highway bridge.

The report found that wind turbines kill about a half a million bats a year. Wind turbines can be installed in ways to minimize their impact on bats and birds. Diseases, notably white nose syndrome caused by a fungus, has devastated the long-eared bat populations that extend from Alabama to British Columbia,  Habitat loss and climate change also play a large role in depopulation. The endangered Florida bonneted bat is one species suffering from climate change and urban development. [tri-colored bat, photo credit: C. Francis]

Some species have recovered thanks to human intervention. The same techniques can be employed to prevent a collapse of America's bat populations. A federal appeals court stopped tree cutting on a fifty-three mile segment of a clean energy project in New England to protect endangered long-eared bats roosting to give birth in June and July.  According to the report 99% of this species has died from white-nosed fungus.

The Crimes of Trumpillini

the Grifter at work in Iowa

At least Dicken's street urchin the Artful Dodger had the excuse of deadly deprivations of Victorian London.  No such excuse exists for a fortunate son's lifetime of grifting. Trumpillini has avoided accountability for his crimes of greater magnitude than the one for which he was finally indicted in Manhattan.  True to form he is engaged in a vitriolic media campaign of intimidation against the criminal case for which he must stand in the dock.

At this point in the proceedings, less you shed tears for the "persecuted" Individual One, it is instructive to enumerate past crimes for which he was not held fully accountable:

People less connected than Trump and his father have gone to jail for violating the Fair Housing Act.  Trumpillini escaped a sentence primarily by suing the Department of Justice for defamation, asking for $100 million in damages. A similar tactic is being used today in the hush money case, with a suit against his main accuser, Michael Cohen, for $500 million in damages--an absurd amount, only designed to intimidate. In 1973 Roy Cohen, famed for his role in the McCarthy hearings, stepped before the cameras to defend the Trumps against racial housing discrimination. As one of their apartment building superintendents explained when he refused to rent a vacant apartment to a black man, "I was only doing what my boss told me to do." Trumpillini paid not one cent in fines and admitted no guilt, but merely signed a consent decree in which he promised to abide by the rules of the Fair Housing Act. By 1978 his company had violated the agreement. DOJ wrote that the Trump company continued to exhibit racial bias in its renting. Before DOJ could gather enough evidence to go to trial the consent decree expired.

The Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City was recently demolished after it had gone bankrupt for the third time. When Trump owned it he lavished his gambling palace with tasteless gold decor spending an astounding $1.2 billion. The casino was nearly bankrupt before a single spin of the wheel took place. But Trump found a way to generate more revenue that was not legal. The IRS found that the casino had violated money laundering laws 106 times in the early 90s when the casino was a favored gambling hangout of the Russian mob. The casino paid the government $477,000 in 1998 without admiting liability for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Each felony charge could have earned up to half a million dollar fine and twenty years in jail. The settlement only covered the civil aspect of the record keeping violations, while DOJ reserved the right to pursue criminal charges. No charges were ever brought.Once again Trumpilini dodged a bullet. But in 2015 the casino again violated money laundering rules. This time the federal regulators imposed a $10 million fine and the consent decree required the Trump Organization to admit guilt. The decree also stated there was "an apparent laundering of funds" using slot machine tickets. Despite the influx of mobster money and his dad's loan of $3.5 million to the Castle casino, Trump, the unparalleled businessman in his own mind, lost $1.3 billion of other people's money in his casino operation when other Atlantic City establishments were raking in the cash. He walked away from the scene in 2009, scott free, while still generating revenue for himself by selling branded products like "Trump Water" to the bankrupt businesses. Now, his new revenue source is running for 'prezidint'.  He has raised millions based on his "Big Lie" of election fraud, a fact now being investigated by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Continuing his fraudulent modus operandi,in 2013 Trumpilini was accused of defrauding students attending his short-lived "Trump University", presumably where they would learn the real estate "art of the deal", of $40 million. Trump only lent his name to a classic traveling bait and switch scheme. He did not develop the course material, pick the instructors, or teach classes. His actual participation extended to a cardboard standee. The fraud case, brought by the New York Attorney General, litigation continued throughout 2016, but was overshadowed in the media by Hilary Clinton's mishandling of classified information. It did not settle until 2018 when Trumpillini wrote another check for $25 million. He still made money.

Finally, and probably most morally reprehensible, is his fraudulent philanthropy. He pretended to distribute money to charities through his eponymous foundation. Not a single dime of foundation money came from Trumpilini himself, despite his high-profile appearances at charity events posing as a big-time donor. As reported by The Washington Post,which examined a list of 4,844 contributors to his foundation, not one was a gift from Trump. He used the charitable front to garner money from others which he distributed under his own name or used for his own personal expenses (including sports memorabilia and a portrait of himself). In 2019 he was forced to close his 'foundation' by New York State and pay a $2 million dollar fine for misuse of charitable funds. His 2020 tax returns show he did not give one dollar to charity in the absence of his 'foundation'.

Trumpillini's life of white collar crime is one in which he has dodged incarceration through influence and money. Recently, his umbrella Trump Organization was found guilty of tax fraud. His former CFO is serving time for that crime.  Will his serious election law, obstruction, and espionage* crimes result in punishment of the demonic Orange Menace?  Will the only President in history to attempt a coup against the United States be brought to the bar of justice? The answers to those historic questions remain unknown for now, but it would be a mistake to underestimate America's own Artful Dodger.

credit: M. Wuerker

* Federal Investigators are asking witnesses about Trumpillini alleging showing a classified map to personse not authorized to see classified material.  According to at least three witnesses, he showed a classified map abroad a plane, to a former advisor, and a journalist writing a book.  Revealing classified material to persons not authorized to receive it is a violation of the Espionage Act.

Letitia James, the NY Attorney General has filed this week a massive civil fraud case against Trump, his adult children, and  Trump Org for $250 million at a minimum in damages. She called the level of fraud "staggering".  She also made criminal referrals to the IRS and the DOJ for the conduct she investigated.

BLM Finally Endorses Conservation

Unlike the National Forests that are managed under a principle of "multiple use" endorsed by the fourth head of the Service, Gilfor Pinchot, who shared the conservation views held by Theodore Roosevelt, the Bureau of Land Management has traditionally been focused on natural resourcee extraction from agriculture to miniing and petroleum. The agency is the country's largest landowner with 245 million acres under its management. On Thursday the Department of Interior announced a proposed rule that may change that shortsighted imbalance in policy. Conservation is becoming more urgent all the time as the world confronts the consequences of two centuries of unbridled fossil fuel burning. The new rule will allow the agency to balance conservation on an equal footing with development for the first time.

   

In its announcement on Thursday, the Department of Interior said, "The proposed rule would build on the historic investments in public lands, waters and clean energy deployment provided by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act by directing land managers to identify and prioritize lands and waters through the land management process that require habitat restoration work, such as removing invasive species or restoring streambanks." Part of this effort will be facilitated through conservation leasing by cooperating partners such as states, localities and tribes. The agency will be put into alignment with other natural resource agencies that are inventorying and assessing the health of public lands to identify those in need of restoration, mitigation or protection from development. This tool may accelerate establishment of wildlife migration corridors and carbon markets. Once the rule making is published in the Federal Register, a seventy-five day public comment perior will begin. Show your support of conservation by submitting a comment commending the agency's shift to balanced policy making.

River Seine Gets an Overdue Clean Up

There is a lot of repair work going on in Paris these days. Notre Dame Cathedral is almost restored after a devastating fire nearly destroyed the centuries old monument to Christianity. The largely wooden spire remains to be rebuilt. The River Seine has been the subject of restoration for decades. The urban river, like many around the world is too toxic to swim in let alone drink. Since 1923 the river has been off limit and a dump for untreated waste and abandoned bicycles. But with the Paris Summer Olympics approaching next year, the City of Lights is speeding up efforts to clean the river of romance so Olympians can race safely. City hall admitted it might have taken decades more effort to improve River Seine with a $1.5 billion project without the added motivation of the Summer Olympics.

The river will play a central role in the opening ceremonies, so it has to look good. This will be the first time since Ancient Greece that the games are opened outside a stadium. Athletes from 200 national teams will float down the Seine towards the setting sun. Six hundred thousand spectators along the banks are expected to add to the spectacular and unprecedented opening. More importantly, the water quality must be improved to where it poses no risk to marathon swimmers that will compete up to ten miles in its waters. A large element of expense is the creation of a large reservoir able to store 20 Olympic swimming pools of water that will be treated. Test swims will take place this summer. [the swans seem to like it; creditAP]

Beyond the games, citizens will be able to enjoy their river once again, perhaps taking a dip when one of the climate change induced heat waves envelope their city. The city is studying five potential bathing spots within Paris. River water is already improving, with more species of fish found besides the two or three able to withstand the gray-green bacteria infested water. It may take some time for Parisians to feel comfortable returning to their river that has been sick for so long.

More Rights of Nature

An Ecuadorian court has blocked the Intag Valley copper mine in an important ruling enforcing the rights of Nature under Ecuador's constitution.  A new constitution was adopted in 2008 to recognizing the right of natural ecosystems to exist, thrive and evolve, and provide for consultation with communities that have the right to defend Nature. Ecuador is the first nation to adopt such a constitutional provision in the world.  The Intag people have been fighting mining projects in this biodiverse cloud forest for thirty years. Mining licenses belonging to Chile's Codelco and Ecuador's Empresa Nacional Miners were revoked by the Imabura Provincial Court on March 29th. Two other notable cases utilized the rights of Nature provision to stop projects marking Ecuador as unfriendly to transnational projects that substantially impact natural areas.

The tropical Andes' cloud forests are the world's most diverse ecosystem out of thirty-six "hotspots" scientifically identified around the world. The mining concession included the headwaters of forty-three rivers and streams. It is the home of the endangered long-nose harlequin frog and other unique amphibians and endangered species found nowhere else. Atelopus longirostris was considered extinct until it was rediscovered in the Junin Reserve within the mining concession. Concession owners used around 400 police and military personnel to enforce the miners' presence.  It appears the fight is not completely over.  Codelco could appeal to the nation's Constitutional Court.  Companies like Codelco come and go, but the valuable minerals remain in the ground.  An environmental leader said that this is the sixth time a transnational mining company has had to give up their claim in the Intag Valley.  Because of its beauty and biodiversity the valley has become a destination for ecotourists.

Tokitae to Return to the Wild?

Conservationists were pleased to know that an unlikely small coalition made up of a trainer, marine park owner, a animal rights group, and a NFL owner announced plans to return Lolita or Tokitae as she is known to a whale sanctuary in Puget Sound. Tokitae has been held captive for more than fifty years. She was only four years old when she was captured to be put on display at Miami's Seaquarium. Amazingly her mother, now more than ninety years old, is believed to still be alive in Puget Sound. Toki, 57 years old and weighing 5,000 lbs, lives in a tank measuring 80x35ft by 20ft deep for huge, intelligent, social mammal it must be the human equivalent of solitary confinement. Toki's brother Hugo died of a brain aneurysm after repeatedly smashing his head against a tank wall. 

Last year Miami Seaquarium, which gained fame as the location for filming the "Flipper" TV show, announced it would no longer conduct public displays with Toki pursuant to an agreement with federal regulators last year. Returning long captive orcas has proven problematic. When Keiko the orca was returned to the wild in Iceland two decades ago, his living conditions markedly improved over living in a tank in Mexico City, but he failed to adapt completely to his wild surroundings and died five years later. Advocates hope that the situation with Toki will be different since members of her L Pod are still living. An advocate elder of the Lummi tribe said Toki knows her clan song and was learning to hunt when she was taken, but that it will take time for her to adjust. She will be under 24 hour care within a netted area until she acclimates to her new surroundings, regains muscle strength, and re-learns how to catch fish. 

Only seventy-three individuals remain in the southern Puguet Sound population comprising three pods according to the Whale Research Center on San Juan Island. The threatened population has not significantly increased since the early seventies. Orca roundups in the seventies were deadly affairs. Thirteen orcas died and forty-five shipped to amusement parks and aquariums around the world, reducing the resident population by 40%. The reduction in members has caused in-breeding with adverse genetic effects.  Eduardo Albor, the park owner, said his young daughter made him promise to help Toki after seeing her perform in a show.  If all goes well in 18 to 24 months and $20 million, Tokitae ("bright colors") will rejoin her pod and her mother, Ocean Sun, to swim free in their home waters once again.

TWIT: More Evidence of Obstruction

Latest:  Defendant Trump plead not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in New York Superior Court today.  The indictment was unsealed and its text can be read here.  DA Bragg's statement of facts can be read here. The false records were made with the intent to commit and conceal another crime, which elevates making each false record to a felony offense.  The enhancing crime is outlined in the statement of facts and is related to election law violations committed through a conspiracy with David Pecker to buy and bury scandalous stories about Trump prior to the 2016 presidential election. ("The Scheme"). The statement refers to Karen McDougal and Stefanie Clifford as "Woman 1" and "Woman 2". Hush money repayments to Michael Cohen were misrepresented as retainer payments.  Defendant Trump predictably lambasted the judge in his case, accusing him of being biased because his daughter once worked on Kamala Harris' 2020 election campaign.  Don Jr. published a picture of the woman on-line. 

{03.04.2023} Jack Smith, Special Prosecutor of Defendant Donald Trump, is focusing on obstruction of justice in the Mar-a-Lago Papers case to distinguish it from the government documents found in the possession of Joe Biden and Mike Pence. In both of those situations, government documents were returned after being discovered in their private residences. According to press reports Trumpillini reviewed some of the document boxes in his possession after a subpoena was issued for the papers return, apparently looking for items he wanted to retain. His personal valet Walt Nauta has testified to the grand jury that he moved the storage boxes after the grand jury subpoena was received in May 2022. His testimony is corroborated by security video tape and a waiter who helped move the material. Last month at least two dozen people on the Mar-a-Lago staff were summoned to testify. DOJ investigators are guided by notes and messages to and from Molly Michaels, former executive assistant, which give a window onto the quotidian at Mar-a-lago Resort.

Investigators are said to have collected evidence that the Orange Menace ignored requests to return government documents for a year and told aides to mislead officials trying to recover the records. When aides told him he should return the documents, he sought advice from other advisors. He reportedly told his aides that the documents belonged to him and he wanted to keep them. According to inside sources, investigators have been asking if Trump showed the classified material to political donors. Evan Corcoran, his attorney at the time, is ordered to testify to the grand jury sitting in Washington, DC. after loosing his appeal on grounds of attorney-client privilege.  The privilege does not apply if a crime is being committed.

Meanwhile™, Trumpilini has raised a reputed $4 million from his deluded MAGA acolytes based on his Manhattan indictment for fraudulent business records used to cover his "catch and kill" scheme with David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer.  Defendant Trump traveled to be arraigned in New York tomorrow.

Sounds Plants Make

US Person's high school biology project was an investigation of the effect of sound on the growth of plants.  He concluded based on his data that growth of bean plants was stimulated by sound.  Since that time there have been more, professional studies of the positive response of growing things to sound.  Now, wine growers in Italy broadcast classical music in their fields to encourage the grapes to mature.A recent study has taken this field of investigation to a new level.  Researchers at Tel Aviv University have concluded that plants emit airborne sound.

recording tomato plants

Although not audible by humans, plants under stress emit ultrasonic vibrations. that contain information about their status.  It has been known for some time that plants experiencing extreme drought produce cavitation in their xylem causing vibrations that can be detected by a recording device attached to the plant.  But the question of airborne sound transmission has remained unanswered until now. Researchers studied tomato, tobacco, wheat, corn and grape in an acoustic box and in a greenhouse.  After filtering out noice using AI the stressed plants emitted airborne sound in the neighborhood of 50-60kHz, too high for humans to hear (20 kHz).  But the result explains why his cat became agitated when he cut his hydrangea plant down to a manageable size.  Cats can hear up to 64kHz.  Dogs also can hear in this frequency range. Here is a recording of a stressed tomato plant, slowed down into human audio range. 

Further, researchers showed that the sounds edited by their study plants differed according to the condition of the plant, for example with the extent of dehydration.  Thus, plants produce sound that contains information about their status that presumably can be interpreted by other nearby plants. Insects, such as moths, can hear frequencies in the hundreds of kHz. (300kHz for the wax moth!) The implication being that if a moth wants to lay eggs on a healthy plant, it can determine a plant's condition by listening to the sounds it emits.  If you are a farmer you may be able in the future to conserve your water use and improve yield by selective irrigation determined by plant sounds.   That encouraging possibility requires further study. [photo credit: Tel Aviv University]