'Toontime: Triangulating the Gunners

[credit: Bruce Plante, Tulsa World]

Wackydoodle sez: Dint furgit a mess a collards too!

B. O'Drama learned wingshooting on the streets of the lower eastside while attending Columbia Law; or perhaps it was in Hawaii when he and his cool buds took a break from hoops and tokin' jays in the restroom; or even at a southside Chicago rod and gun club between organizing events? Whatever works, but in this case the photo-op mis-fired.

[credit: Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette]

COTW: Sequestration in Pictures

This graph shows why America has a deficit spending problem:

Federal revenue as a result of the Charlatan's windfall for the rich has essentially leveled off while the government continues to spend more. Of course, some of the spending was to allow the banksters to pass GO, collect their obscene pay packets, and keep them from going directly to JAIL. Barak O'Drama and Friends now face the automatic spending cuts (sequestration) mandated by the Budget Control Act. Both sides are scrambling to protect the Defense Department. According to the conservative Heritage Institute cuts hit the Pentagon the hardest, which of course is exactly why US Person supports sequestration. As our tanned friend across the isle said, "Time's Up!":

Climate Change Bad for Wolverines

The US Fish & Wildlife Service has come to the inescapable conclusion that global warming is fragmenting the high altitude habitat of the wolverine. The largest member of the weasel family (Mustelidae) is dependent upon snow and cold temperatures near tree line for birthing dens. A persistent, stable snowpack greater than five feet in depth appears to be required by the fierce, solitary hunter. Although able to kill prey many times its size, it is not adapted to warm climates, but is well adapted to cold weather year round with a thick, double layer of fur, wide padded paws, and small extremities.   It prefers to disperse only across suitable high altitude (4500-8500 ft) habitat and avoids hot summer weather by inhabiting environments with persistent spring snowpack. They almost never reproduce in lower altitude forests.   The Service said, "extensive modeling indicates that the wolverine's snowpack habitat will be greatly reduced and fragmented in the coming years due to climate warming" and is thus threatened as defined in the Endangered Species Act. 78 FR 7886. The agency was under a court imposed deadline to reach a decision on listing this fiscal year. Wolverines were nearly killed off at the turn of the 20th century, but have increased their numbers with the end of widespread predator poisoning and trapping. The agency proposal covers the discrete wolverine population of the contiguous Untied States.

The polar bear is in a similar situation as the wolverine. It needs ice pack to cover the Arctic Ocean so it can hunt seals effectively. However, the agency and the current administration have so far side-stepped the issue of declaring the polar bear endangered by global warming because of the consequences for potential resource development in a melting Arctic. The same considerations played a role in the wolverine listing decision. The Service went so far as to propose a special exception for human use of backcountry areas such as timber harvesting and recreational activities which it does not consider "significant threats" to the survival of the wolverine. Intentional killing or harming of wolverines would still be prohibited. The surviving 250-300 wolverines are now restricted to remote mountain tops in the Cascades and Northern Rockies of the lower 48 states and Alaska. Ninety-four percent of wolverine habitat is on federal land. It once ranged over the entire Rocky Mountain and the Sierra Nevada ranges. A reintroduction proposal is also made to re-establish the wolverine to its historic range in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. A ninety day comment period on the proposed listing has begun. The public may submit comments at http://www.regulations.gov by entering the docket number FWS-R6-ES-2012-0107   A final decision on listing the wolverine is expected in a year.

Palmyra Cleared of Rats, Now to Clear Plastic

Fairy tern, credit: Erik Oberg

The remote central Pacific atoll of Palmyra has one less species living in paradise. Black rats were an invader responsible for damaging native species until man took action to remove them from the shreds of palm covered land floating in a vast blue ocean. Twenty-five islets only cover 580 acres, but the seas surrounding contain thousands of acres of healthy coral reefs. In 2009 Palmyra was included in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Rats could probably not have reached Palmyra without man's intervention so removing them artificially was an ecologically appropriate action. Around 30,000 rats were exterminated to protect ten seabird species which use the US administered atoll for nesting. The agency used a rodenticide with a proven track record in similar island clearances. The rare flowering tree Pisonia grandis is also expected to benefit from the extermination. Rats eat eggs and chicks of ground nesting birds as well as land crabs, seeds, and tree seedlings. Black rats made there way to Palmyra during WWII, most likely aboard US Navy and merchant marine ships. The clearing of rats is the first step in a ecological project intended to restore the atoll's natural balance. Last summer conservationists associated with University of California Santa Cruz found a 367% increase in arthropods, a 130% increase in native tree seedlings including the first recorded seedlings of Pisonia, and no change in the number of bristled thigh curlews, a threatened bird species for which special care was taken to prevent harm from the rat removal.

Wisdom feeds her latest chick

Now that Palmyra is being restored, perhaps our attention should turn to cleaning up another man-made killer of Pacific wildlife, plastic. Some species are heavily impacted by visible plastic debris that are washed up and accumulated on islands in the central Pacific gyre. An example is the Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immmutabilis) nesting on Midway Atoll. {"Midway Island"} Chicks pecking for food ingest plastic junk to such as extent that reduced their food intake which leads to dehydration and death. Parent birds unknowing feed as much as 5 tons of plastic debris to their chicks. Lead poisoning from paint chipping off abandoned buildings is also a source of toxicity. Despite the man-made hazards these impressive flyers cling tenaciously to life. Recently the oldest recorded albatross of 62 years, appropriately named "Wisdom" hatched a healthy chick for the sixth consecutive year. The bird has probably raised 30 to 35 chicks in her life, but the figure may be more since experienced birds make better parents. Wisdom has worn out five bands over the last six decades, making her the oldest known bird in the world. The albatross is a source of inspiration to staff and volunteers tasked with monitoring the health of seabirds that arrive in the hundreds of thousands to nest in the Midway Refuge. The survey is one of the oldest of tropical seabirds in the world.

credit: Emma Teuten

Visible plastic debris such as those despoiling Midway and other Pacific islands are not the only ocean pollution problem. Plastic trash has bee around long enough that it has degraded in seawater. Microplastics or particles of plastic the size of plankton or smaller enter the food chain of marine organisms. [photo] Bivalves--clams, mollusks and oysters--which filter the water for food are especially affected. Clams can be turned into hermaphrodites by ingesting microplastics because they mimic hormones like estrogen. They also act as sponges soaking up toxins such as tributyltin used in marine paint. Of 504 fish taken from the English Channel and examined, more than a third was found to contain microplastics in their guts. The contamination could pose serious physical consequences for fish, creating digestive blockages or causing a false sense of satiation. The study was published in Marine Pollution Bulletin. Plastic pollution can be relatively easy to correct by conscienciouly recycling plastic products and eliminating products that are potentially hazardous if disposed of improperly. But man must also clean up the mess he has made with more than a half century of using and dumping plastic.

Company Agrees to Halt Deforestation

The few Sumatran tigers still alive would be roaring if they knew Asia Pulp & Paper Group, the company turing Indonesia's rainforests into toilet paper has agreed to immediately halt any further deforestation and develop a conservation policy according to Greenpeace. The high profile international conservation organization has been campaigning against the company for more than ten years. Greenpeace began asking commodity purchasers to stop buying unless Asia Pulp & Paper agreed to stop deforestation. Of course the devil is in the details of implementation and the company has made and broken promises before. APPG missed three self-imposed targets for phasing out logging in Sumatra. It defaulted on $13.9 billion in debt in 2001, and currently has plans to construct the world's largest paper mill costing $1.5 billion or more in South Sumatra. How it will abide by its latest environmental policy commitments given revenue demands is not clear. For now, APPG has publicly stated it will impose a moratorium on clearance of natural forests and peatlands. In addition it has agreed to independent monitoring of its compliance. Greenpeace will suspend its market-oriented campaign that has cost the company millions of dollars in lost business since 2009. The implications of APPG's policy reversal are considerable in Indonesia. APPG is owned by Sinar Mas a powerful force in that nation's politics Sinar Mas also owns Golden Agri Resources, Indonesia's largest palm oil company. The move puts pressure on other environmental offenders such as Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd. to adopt similar sustainable policies.

EU Prepares Ban on Bee Killing Pesticides

After several scientific studies concluded that {"neonicotinoids"} harm and kill bees, the EU Commission has proposed to ban three pesticides in that class from application to flowering crops starting July 1. The proposal is a major step toward eliminating a source of bee mortality at a time when the valuable pollinators are in decline. Eighty-four percent of European crops and 80% of wildflowers need insect pollination. An array of causes contributing to sudden colony collapse have been suggested. Only until recently scientists have demonstrated the lethality of neonicotinoids on Apis mellifera, the honeybee. On January 16th the European Food Safety Authority published three risk assessments on clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, among the most widely used pesticides in the world. The agency concluded these pesticides should not be used on crops that attract honeybees such as flowers, oilseed rape, and sunflowers. The next step is a meeting of advisors including agricultural and industrial concerns leading to a vote on February 25th by committee of experts from all twenty-seven EU countries.

There has been considerable input from concerned citizens requesting protection for European bees from pesticides. Conservation groups say the proposal to only restrict the professional use of neonicotinoids did not go far enough to protect the environment but should contribute to improving the health of honeybees. Conservationists also pointed out that the proposals do not protect bumblebees which are also affected by the pesticides. Bumblebees feed on potato flower pollen and potato crops can be treated under the proposed restrictions. Soils, water and wildflowers may become contaminated with treated seed dust causing unknown impacts on bees. A full ban on neonictinoids is needed to protect Europe's 2500 species of bees as well as other beneficial insects.

'Toontime: Hillarious Hillary

[credit: Kirk Walters, Toledo Blade]

She managed to put off her appearance before conservative Senators seeking to score points off the Benghazi charade until just before her resignation. By then she could afford to excoriate her inquisitors. Her single most significant act as Secretary of State was to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline despite the EPA criticizing her State Department's draft EIS as insufficient. One flinty lady is Hillary Clinton--no wonder Bubba wandered! Environmentalists will be dismayed, but a little bird tells US Person they will be seeing more of "tough guy" Hillary in the future.