Rhino Slaughter Continues in South Africa

Republic of South Africa has the unwanted distinction of the continent's highest rate of poaching white(Ceratotherium simum) and black rhinos (Diceros bicornis). Part of the reason for such a high death rate is that the country is home to the largest rhino populations in the world: 18,000 white rhinos, and 2000 black rhinos. However, the country has been criticized for its anti-poaching policy and for supporting a legal trade in rhino horn. Compared to Namibia which lost only 20 rhinos to poaching last year, South Africa is failing to protect the species. The butchering is merciless and rampant. Rhinos, which are incredibly tough animals, have been known to suffer for days after their horns have been cut off by criminals bent on supplying the senseless but lucrative demand for horn in Asia as a cure-all. 2014 broke a new record for the number of rhino deaths due to poaching, 1,020 by November.

local ranger spots mother & calf; Save the Rhino Trust

Experts credit Namibia's success to a community-based approach called the conservancy model. Namibia has the second largest rhino population in the world with 1750 black rhinos. Local people take responsibility for safeguarding the animals on a daily basis. The emphasis is on stopping poaching and not just catching the criminals. The natives become invested in protecting their rhinos and are much more willing to report suspicious behavior or conversations to rangers. Catching poachers is more of a paramilitary operation that is not often successful. New gadgets such as drones, may detect more illegal activity, but getting rangers to the kill scene in time to find perpetrators or collect usable evidence is still a problem in remote areas. The uptick in Namibia's poaching losses has officials concerned as previously inaccessible areas of the country are opened up to mineral exploration, primarily by Chinese companies. A number of Chinese miners have been arrested for the possession of ivory and rhino horn.  The current price for rhino horn in Vietnam is $6000/100g, more than gold.

Despite Namibia's rhino conservation success, the government has been criticized by rhino advocates because it has authorized a few black rhino to be taken in trophy hunts. Trophy hunting is controversial among conservationists for reasons beyond the ethical question of killing of an endangered animal for sport. The business provides rhino conservancies around a quarter of their income. An American big game hunter recently paid $350,000 for a permit to kill a male rhino. As we all know, some people have more money than common sense, and the hunter still does not know if he can bring his rhino carcass back to the US. The US Fish & Wildlife Service has received 15,000 public comments on his request. Namibia is moving ahead with a cull of five rhinos this year including one sold to another American hunter. From the standpoint of the species survival a limited, controlled hunt is infinitely preferable to the illegal wholesale slaughter going on in South Africa.

Completely drying up the demand in developed countries for horn and ivory is probably the best way to reduce the death toll in combination with effective community-based law enforcement. If there is no market for the animal parts, poachers are unlikely to risk life and limb attempting to collect them. The United States is considered to be the second largest market for ivory after China. California has had a law on its books for forty years to end the ivory trade but it still continues. An NRDC report says that 90 of the ivory sold in LA and 80% sold in San Francisco is illegal. A California legislator from San Diego recently introduced a bill, AB96, that will close the 'old ivory' loophole--ivory from elephants killed prior to 1977--prohibiting anyone from buying, selling or importing ivory or rhino horn. The bill is deficient in that it does not make a violation of the law a felony but only a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of to $10,000. People who cause the prolongation of this mindless slaughter by criminal syndicates need to go to prison to think about the consequences of their actions.

Critical Habitat Proposed for Ring Seals

undernourished female sedated on Svalbard, BBC 

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced December 2nd it was proposing a 350,000 square mile critical habitat in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas for the Ringed seal.  The seal was designated endangered in 2012. Ring seals are dying in unprecedented numbers due to higher temperatures melting their snow caves where pups are reared.  The Ringed seal is the favorite prey of the Polar bear.  Polar bears are facing starvation as seal numbers plummet. The proposed designation is the largest in history.  If an area is designated critical habitat for an endangered species, federal agencies are prohibited from permitting, funding or performing actions that adversely modify the area.  Oil companies are certain to oppose the measure since they are expending large sums including  purchases of federal offshore leases in preparation for exploiting Arctic oil and gas deposits.  Shell Oil is continuing to press the federal government for drilling permits in ringed seal habitat.  The Arctic is predicted to be ice free in summer by mid-century.  This year's summer sea ice was the sixth lowest size on record; the lowest extent was recorded in 2012.

The public is invited to submit comments to the agency during a 90 day comment period on the proposed designation.  The agency is expected to finalize the rule by December 2015.  The identifying docket number is NOAA-NMFS-2013-0114

COTW: Methane Hot Spot Over 4 Corners

NASA confirms that fracking operations are releasing tremendous amounts of methane into the atmosphere. The methane cloud over the Four Corners region, a major fracking site, is so large it can be seen from space.This image shows the plume as a red spot:

blues and purples lower than 2003-09 average

In each of the years studied during 2003-09 the area released over half a million metric tons of mehtane gas into the atmosphere. The amounts are much larger than estimated. Methane, the largest component of natural gas, accounts for 9% of the US greenhouse gas emissions, but it is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere. The oil and gas industry accounts for 30% of the methane emissions or about 8 million metric tons a year, enough to power every household in DC, Maryland and Virginia. The Current Occupant says he has plans to introduce new regulations to reduce the waste. In another glaring example of just how compromised Repugnant legislators are, the Senate majority leader announced he would lead efforts to block measures to curtail domestic energy production, and approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline that has become a cause celebré among conservatives. Plummeting oil prices that have reached a low not seen since 2009 are cutting company profits.

Large Mammals in Europe Recovering

Species protection, habitat conservation, captive breeding and reintroductions are having a positive effect on large mammal numbers in Europe. Large carnivores such as the brown bear, lynx and grey wolf all have stable or increasing populations. Of course everything is relative. All of these species faced near extinction by the mid 20th century. Europe is home to 740 million people and the lanscape has been intensively altered for centuries. Nevertheless, people are learning to co-exist with large mammals and they are learning to recolonize areas abandoned by humans as their population becomes increasingly urban. Urban populations across europe are expected to increase by 16% up to 2045; conversely there has been a 28% in rural populations since the 1960s. Many animal (15%) reptile (19%) and bird species still face extinction, however.

A study conducted by 76 carnivore specialists in Europe points out that the European model of conservation differs from the North American one. America tends to concentrate on conserving remaining wilderness areas separated from areas of human habitation, whereas the European approach is to allow humans and predators to co-exist in the same landscape where precious little true wilderness is extant. This approach requires compromise between human needs and carnivores' needs, but it seems to be working. Europe has twice as many wolves--more than 11,000--than the United States where wolves are still persecuted. European brown bears, who are 17,000 individuals, are the most abundant large predator on the continent.

European bison (Bison bonasus) is a leading example of what captive breeding programs can do to help restablish an extirpated native population of large mammals. The only surviving member of megafauna from the Pleistocene once occupied Europe from France to Ukraine, up to the north shore of the Black Sea.  Extinction occurred from west to east beginning in the 15th century. The last wild populations survived in the Caucasus until 1927. After that 54 captives with known ancestors remained. Today because of breeding efforts and reintroductions the bison survives in 33 separate wild populations totaling an estimated 2759 individuals. The largest population of 850 is in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest staddling the border between Poland and Belarus. {08.05.13, European Bison Roam Free} The future of the bison looks good if collaborative efforts to increase their range and provide more habitat where farmland is being abandoned such as in the Carpathians meets with success. The species remains at risk due to low genetic diversity and poaching.

Brown bear (Ursus arctos) is Europe's second largest mammalian predator after the Polar bear. Since the Pleistocene, brown bears have ranged over Europe, but suffered drastic declines in number during the 19th century due to deforestation and human predation or persecution. By 1955 it occupied only 37% of its former range, loosing the majority of its range in Southern and Western Europe. By 2008 due primarily to hunting controls and legal protections the bear has doubled in number over the last 45 years and increased its range to 41% of its historical distribution. Without doubt there is deep-rooted fear towards a preditor as large as a brown bear in areas from which they have been absent for centuries. Bruno, the first brown bear to return to Bavaria in 170 years, was shot dead in 2006 after complaints were received about his fearless behavior. His brother JJ was killed in Switzerland in 2008 apparently for similar reasons. Some reintroduction programs such as in the French Pyrenees have been abandoned after local protests. Poaching continues to be a problem for the species. Romania, home to a quarter of Europes' brown bears, is experiencing an increase in poaching. Poaching was also the caused the extirpation of reintroduced bears in the Northern Limestone Alps of Austria. Lack of cooperation between national management agencies and lack of public acceptance of a large carnivore's proximity pose problems to complete brown bear recovery.

The "rewilding" of Europe is an exciting and hopeful development which demonstrates that modernity can insure a place for the other creatures living on this planet. Not only is maintaining wild populations of other animals a benefit to humans, as the dominant species on Earth it is our moral duty to do so.

California Enacts Plastic Bag Ban

Update: US Person has noted many times that corporations are willing to spend practically unlimited amounts of money to obtain legislation favorable to their profit making. California's recently passed plastic bag ban is the target of the American Progressive Bag Alliance, an industry front, that has spent $3 million to collect signatures to put a repeal of the environmentally beneficial and popular law on the 2016 ballot. There is strong public support for a plastic ban statewide. Before the legislation was passed 125 California cities and counties enacted their own bans. Most of the repeal money has been raised out of state. A full-fleged campaign in 2016 will cost the corporations $30 to $50 million says the director of the leading group advocating the ban on plastic bags. Three out-of-state corporations produce most of the plastic bags used in California; a poll conducted by USC and LA Times indicates Californians support a ban by a two to one margin.  A recent study says the ocean contains 268,940 tons of plastic.   But the corporate business front has submitted 800,000 signatures to the secretary of state's office. 505,000 valid signatures are needed to place the repeal initiative on the ballot. Once again democracy and the Earth is being threatened by the corporate Money Power {24.07.09, Too Expensive to Use It.}

{01.09.14}The first in the nation to do so, the California state legislature on Friday passed a ban on plastic grocery bags. Several localities in the US have passed plastic bag bans. State level bans have usually been defeated by plastic bag manufacturers. California's ban passed on a second vote after the United Food and Commercial Workers Union supported it. The provision includes money for plastic bag manufacturers to retool to make heavier bags that can be reused and purchased by consumers. The ban was sponsored by state senator Alex Padilla, who introduced a similar bill last year that was defeated by three votes. Plastic bags are a hazard to marine wildlife that can ingest them and they are difficult to recycle. More than 10 billion bags are used in California each year. Governor Jerry Brown (D) must sign the provision into law by September 30th for it to take effect.

'Toontime: Washington DC, 2015

credit: R.J. Matson, Roll Call
Wackydoodle sez:  An' do it so well!

No need for a Karnak: the next two years in government will be an extended Kabuki play featuring a lame duck and two Repugnants imitating life. The Current Occupant will legislate in minor ways using his space pen that writes upside down, don't you know!

credit: Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune 

BC Idonwanna sez: Buffalo solider, put hands up!

Toddler Kills Mother at Walmart

This story sums up what is wrong with 'Merica. A two year old boy shot and killed his own mother while they shoped till they dropped Tuesday in an Idaho Walmart, 'Merica leading gratification location. The 29-year-old mom carried her concealed gat in her purse. Of course the curious boy found it and used it for its intended purpose. The police characterized the shooting as "a tragic accident". Why the woman believed it necessary to carry a weapon while shopping at a big box store was not explained by officials. A spokeman for the Kootenai sheriff's department said "she was visiting relatives" in the area. Her husband was not with her at the time of the shooting. The woman was a college graduate and worked as a research assistant. Idaho law permits the carrying of concealed weapons in public if they are permitted except in courthouses, schools and jails. Walmart's corporate policy defers to state law on the matter of guns in its stores. In November an Oklahoma woman was shot to death in her home by her young child with a handgun.It appears that problems with authority begin at an early age in 'Merica.

In other stories relating to respect for authority, a recently relesed autopsy report shows that the LAPD shot and killed a suspect in the back, contrary to the official version of the suspect's death at the hands of police. Ezell Ford was shot three times, once at close range in the back. Ford was allegedly known to local police as mentally ill. He died in a struggle over an officer's gun in August according to police. The officer who lost his weapon used a personal back-up gun to fatally shoot Ford in the back after his partner had shot Ezell twice. His weapon left a "muzzle imprint" on Ford's back. An apparently inebriated college student was laying in the middle of a dark, country road on Cape Cod after a New Year's celebration Thursday morning. A cop cruiser, responding to an emergency call at 4am, ran over the college student and killed him. And so it goes in 2015 as the football matches roll on, much like it was the year before.