Bangladesh Declares Dolphin Sanctuaries

credit: WCS

Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest nations densely inhabited and racked with seasonal typhoons, has seen fit to declare three new wildlife sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove ecosystem. The two remaining Asian freshwater dolphins, the Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) and the Irrawaddy River dolphin (Orcacella brevirostris) now live only in the Sundarbans. Their exact numbers are unknown, but there populations are down to several hundred each. The areas declared sanctuaries are small, only 10.7 sq.km. but are considered to be safe zones against extinction by the Wildlife Conservation Society which has been working on conservation in the Sundarbans since 2002. The size and location of the sanctuaries is based on the research of Brian D. Smith, director of WCS's Asian Cetacean Program. River dolphins are severely impacted by human fishing and habitat degradation. The Yangtze River dolphin was last seen in the wild in 2002, and is now considered extinct. The Society will sponsor local education activities to raise awareness of "Shushuk", the Ganges River dolphin, among communities bordering the Sundarbans. The communities subsist on fishing with nets that sometimes entangle dolphins leading to their drowning. The Sundarbans is also the last remaining stronghold of the Bengal tiger. GREEN KUDOS to Bangladesh!

Putin Wins Third Term As Expected

The irony is--yes, Virginia irony is dead, but it keeps coming back like a zombie--he did not need to cheat. Russian pundits think he would have won with just over 50% of the vote. Not good enough for Putin and his machine to avoid a run-off, so they manufactured a 64% thumping of rival candidates. Not quite as bad as a communist "election" but close enough for the Kremlin. The methods used are familiar to western politicians: ballot stuffing, voting more than once at different polls, and removing outside observers from the polls. Nevertheless there has been some green shoots of democracy in Russia with rival political rallies and demonstrations unscripted and unplanned. And only 250-1000 arrested out of thousands in the inevitable anti-Putin demonstrations after the election's predictable outcome. Medvedev will serve as President until May, then take over as Prime Minister in the job swap with Putin. In a conciliatory move, he ordered 32 criminal cases to be reviewed including the imprisonment of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Occupy Kochville a Success

source: NationofChange.org

US Person asked you to help out with Occupy Kochville! (aka Wichita, KS) so he reports via Columbia Climate Change Coalition that the peaceful demonstration and march was a success. Even Charles Koch, who ordinarily does not speak to local media outlets, (he is worth $50 billion, so it is optional) felt compelled to answer the telephone and speak to a local reporter. Participants were able to secure a centrally located assembly spot within marching distance of three iconic targets, the Kochs' own personal propaganda organ, the Kansas Policy Institute, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Bank of America. Occupiers came from 10 different states and 45 cities over three days. On the last day a General Assembly was held and it was decided to march 2 miles round trip to Koch Industries. There, Occupiers were met by a counter-demonstration as well as heavy police surveillance including mounted police and FBI. Generous donations helped fund the non-violent action and prove democracy is not yet dead in "Amerika".

Chart of the Week: Full Speed Ahead in Gulf

Nothing like rising gas prices during a presidential election cycle to focus the minds of politicians. Last Friday British Petroleum announced it had settled the consolidated medical claims of thousands of Gulf fisherman for $7.8 billion. Those claims are just part of the massive consolidated damage suit in federal district court, but what is clear as the suit progresses is the company using its enormous financial leverage to cloak the nature of its legal liability for the disaster.  The US Justice Department is supposedly conducting an investigation into the company's criminal culpability.   The settlement will limit the source of potential damning evidence that could support a criminal prosecution for its mismanagement of operations aboard the Deepwater Horizon platform. Judge Carl Barbier has already ruled in the civil case that witnesses can not testify to previous accidents. Last week the company filed a motion to strike any written references to previous accidents from the court record. The case, if it ever goes to trial, will not be heard before a jury, but the case is so big that new evidence of BP degree of culpability may emerge despite the company's efforts at damage control.

As the lawyers wrangle, drilling in the Gulf proceeds with new vigor. Forty rigs are operating in the Gulf of Mexico compared to 25 a year ago. Five of those are operated by BP. There are plans to expand operations into Mexican and Cuban waters. The United States signed a new agreement with Mexico recently, opening up 1.5 million acres of offshore territory on their maritime border to development. The Interior Department estimates the area contains up to 172 million barrels of oil and 300 billion cubic feet of gas. These are modest reserves when compared on the global scale. The countries reached an agreement on sharing offshore oil and gas in 1980, but the US declined to ratify the treaty. Now with gas prices exceeding $4.00/gal in the US, there is renewed political pressure to speed up domestic production despite the risk of more environmental damage. Pemex, Mexico's national oil company, is preparing to drill well in waters over 6,000 feet deep, but it has little deep water experience. Mexico also does not have the resources to combat a major deep water spill like the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Yet the political discourse in the US is not over the question of how domestic production should go forward, but how fast it can be given the green light.

Navy Fails to Protect Marine Mammals

The United States Navy is asking for public comment on its environmental impact statement for training operations along the northwest coast. It should finally realize that conservationists are not sanguine about the use of sonar in marine mammal habitat since the federal government has been sued once again for failing to take adequate precautions protecting marine mammals from the potentially lethal effects of sonar. The previous round of litigation ended with the Navy agreeing to keep visual watch for whales and cease sonar emissions if they were spotted. US Person does not need to be a marine biologist (although he would like to be one) to know that inadequate concession still leaves many whales, dolphins and seals exposed to brain damaging subsurface sonar. On January 26th a coalition of conservation groups and American Indian tribes sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to protect marine mammals from US Navy war training. The suit in federal district court for Northern California calls for the NMFS to mitigate harm to mammals in critical areas of the Northwest Training Range that extends from Northern California to the Canadian border. Since the Navy makes extensive use of high frequency and mid-frequency sonar during training operations the coalition anticipates it will harm dozens of marine mammals who also use sonar and are therefore quite sensitive to subsurface sound. A spokesman for 10 federally recognized tribes joining the suit said "our relatives such as the whales and many other species will be negatively and permanently impacted by the Navy's activities."

orca critical habitat

Late in 2010 the NMFS gave the Navy permission to harm or harass marine mammals for five more years of expanded naval activities. The conservation groups point out that the Northwest Range is the size of California but not once square inch of it is designated as off-limits to sonar use. The petitioners are asking for common-sense rules based on the latest scientific data to protect critical habitat and biologically rich areas such as the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary from disruptive training activity. There are many documented instances of sonar disturbing marine mammal behavior and even causing death. Visual detection cannot protect mammals beneath the surface or in bad weather when they are feeding, hunting, mating or migrating. For just one example, the endangered southern resident killer whale pods [photo, map: NOAA] use northern coastal waters within the training range while feeding on salmon runs in the fall and winter. The Navy will be pushing these protected orcas closer to extinction through indiscriminate use of sonar. In 2003 the USS Shoup while operating in the Haro Strait exposed a pod of the protected orcas to mid-frequency sonar, causing the mammals to stop feeding and attempt to flee the area.

'Toontime: Greeks at the Pass

[credit: Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune]

Greeks will be able to make the huge debt payment coming due this month because European creditors decided to protect their themselves and the Euro union by bailing out the sick man once again, but the Greeks have signed up to an economic death by a 1000 cuts. As another recession grips Europe tighter, it will become impossible to keep the country from defaulting on loan terms regardless of the 70% "haircut" taken by sovereign bond owners. Greece's bonds have been downgraded again to "selective default" by Standard & Poor's meaning the ECB will not accept them as collateral for borrowing which could cause Greek banks another liquidity crunch. This chart shows why Greece is headed for a crash:

Greece's economy as measured by manufacturing orders and purchasing is tanking. It is the worst contraction seen in 13 years of data collection. Survey respondents cited shorter working hours, fewer jobs, lack of working capital, and weak demand caused by austerity measures. Granted, Greece never was a manufacturing powerhouse like Germany is. Its economy is driven by tourism, agriculture, and the public sector. Forget the public sector under austerity imposed from without. Fewer tourists will be showing up this summer because no one really wants to visit a country on the brink of economic collapse especially when euros are harder to come by. Greeks formerly employed as professionals are already growing their own crops, even on rooftops and balconies in the cities. You don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing.

Iceland stands as the only example of a government listening to its people and rejecting the demands of banksters. Iceland placed the needs of its populace ahead of international creditors by protecting domestic depositors, halting a retaliatory sell-off of the krona and creating new state-controlled banks from the remnants of the banks that failed. Most importantly Iceland's banks have forgiven debt equivalent to 13% of gross domestic product. The rating agency, Fitch, that once downgraded Icelandic bonds, is now rating Iceland's recovery a success story.

Obama Fundraiser Lousy Ambassador

Another promise broken by the Obamatron: ambassadorships for funds. He said he would end giving ambassadorships away as prizes for key campaign fundraisers, but that did not stop him from hiring Nicole Advant who proved she does not know what she was talking about when it comes to diplomacy. According to the State Department's Inspector General, Avant presided over "an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement" at the US embassy in the Bahamas, that is when she was actually there. Avant spent 276 days between September 2009 and November 2011 away from her office. Only 23 of those days were on official business. Avant showed a preference from operating from her Los Angeles home which "contributed to poor mission management" and a "perception of indifference". Before getting her plump patronage appointment, Avant was Southern California finance co-chair for Obama and VP of Interior Music Publishing. Unfortunately for taxpayers Ms. Avant's deputy ambassador who was left in charge of the embassy during her frequent absences was also inept. Despite being an idyllic local, the US embassy and its staff points out the Inspector General is important to US anti-drug policy since the Bahamas serves as a transshipment point for the international drug trade and illegal immigration. Since resigning her public job, Avant has returned to fund raising, something she does well, apparently. She joined co-president Michelle Obama at a Beverly Hills residence for a fundraiser with husband Ted Saranados who is an executive with Netflix, the movie rental business on January 31st. On February 15th according to White House logs, she sat down to a $35,800 per plate (the maximum allowed by law) dinner that included George Clooney, Jim Belushi, and Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa.

Avant is just the latest example of fundraisers gone awry in the diplomatic service. Ambassador Howard Gutman caused a stir in Belgium when he suggested Israel caused anti-Semitic feelings. Former Ambassador Cynthia Stroum left the Luxembourg embassy in disgrace after causing a work environment that was "aggressive, bullying, hostile and intimidating". With ambassadors like these, no wonder we fight so many wars. Sounds like a job for US Person; quick Cheeves, the smoke signals!