Review of GarryRogers.com

Posted on June 26, 2016 by GarryRogers

Blog Review

Buckmoth at Coldwater Farm

I began my blog in hopes of improving the lives of wild animals. I wanted to promote wildlife appreciation and expose detrimental human behavior. The past four years, I posted 2,483 articles about wildlife and its habitat. I wrote some the posts, but most of them were reblogged from other sources. The blog now reaches 35,000+ people. Typical for the Internet, two percent see the post titles, and of those a few follow the links and read the posts. Over four years, there were 118,801 visits to the blog and 211,374 page views.

Has the blog improved the lives of wildlife? I think so, but not by very much. Few people share my love for wildlife, and love is a difficult thing to teach. Even my most environmentally conscious friends have little energy left over from the demands of their families and jobs for wildlife. They rarely find time to sign petitions.

Mining Water Pollution (Wikipedia)

During the short time the blog has operated, detrimental human activities have continued a steady rise. The worst has been population. Maybe the blog gave a few people reasons to restrain their reproductive urges, but if so, its total impact compares to the blunt force of a feather whacking the nose of a speeding locomotive. A thousand websites and tens of thousands of conservation works have not deflected humanity’s headlong sprint toward its crash. On the way to our crash, we have become the biosphere’s greatest predator and resource consumer or, as they put it in Ghostbusters, the Destructor.

Blog Future

2015 Last Year’s Mule Deer fawn.

Will I continue the blog? I think so. I learned so much about wildlife that it seems the blog’s primary achievement has been personal enlightenment. If I continue blogging, I will focus more on interesting subjects and less on SEO, blog rank, Klout score, etc.

This morning, the twin mule deer born here in 2014 came to visit. The buck born in 2013 often comes too, but not this morning. He will have two antler points this year, and might already be thinking about this year’s chances. The two-year old buck grazed willow leaves to within 12 feet listening to my banal chat on birds, weather, and willow leaves. It’s hard to get that much pleasure from blogging, but one has to do something when the kids leave.

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Blogging for the Earth

Posted on January 5, 2016 by GarryRogers

Blogging about Nature: Introducing Garry Rogers on the League of Bloggers for a Better World

Garry Rogers

My blog posts are about nature, about wildlife and its habitat (posts). They are expressions of my concerns for natural conditions and events.

During the past year, 2015, lethal heat waves and storms, decline of the great iconic species of elephants, lions, and rhinos, whittling away of the tropical rain forests, and massive clouds of air and water pollution made it clear that humanity is changing the Earth.

More than just the great species, we are eliminating many other species hundreds or perhaps thousands of times more quickly than ever achieved by meteorites, volcanic eruptions, or natural climate change.

Total extinction of a species usually happens after decades of decline. In 2014, the World Wildlife Fund and other organizations carried out an exhaustive analysis of more than 10,000 wildlife studies (download the report). They wanted to know how wild plants and animals were holding up against human activities. They learned that from 1970 to 2014, just 44 years, the total number of animals on Earth declined by more than 50%! Rates of decline vary across species groups. Birds, for instance declined by 40%. Other groups, especially those dependent on freshwater, have declined by 70%.

What evolution took billions of years to produce, we humans are destroying in a tick of geologic time. We are changing the planet so quickly, that not by migration, and certainly not by natural selection, can plants and animals cope. If we continue our activities at their current rate, in only a few centuries, we will turn the Earth into a factory farm of cities, farms, feedlots, and roads with only the tiniest fraction of our native creatures surviving on the fringes.

I often write brief comments without listing my sources. I am always happy to respond to requests for explanations.

Nature-Conservation News (Animals, Climate, Humans)

Posted on June 3, 2015 by GarryRogers

Blogging the Nature Conservation News

For two years, I’ve blogged about nature conservation and my EcoSciFi work. I’ve written original articles about invasive plants and Arizona wildlife, and I’ve added almost 500 comments to news reports. My busiest day was 22 blog posts and 4,600 visitors. Finding interesting news items, formatting posts, and adding comments is absorbing work, but it leaves no time for writing longer articles, stories, and books. In January 2015, I cut back on blogging.

Nature conservation is the great challenge of our time. Human beings are imposing the great death, the sixth mass extinction of Earth’s creatures. As citizen naturalists, we respond by volunteering to help specialists acquire real-world information, and repair damaged and invaded ecosystems. We also advise and direct our leaders using letters, petitions, and demonstrations. Effective response requires current information.

I’ve designed RebelMouse newsletters that summarize the news in continuous streams. The newsletters automatically display stories from sources that I pre-select. I choose sources that report on relevant subjects and that have high standards for honesty and presentation quality. The editorial slant follows the Land Ethic.

The newsletters are more current and complete than my blog ever was. They are easy to scan for interesting stories, and I can add information and insights. A click shares the stories on social-media.

Following or subscribing to the newsletters produces a daily email, but I recommend bookmarks instead.

You are welcome to share the newsletters and to send me comments on the stories and sources.

Thank you.

Here’s the news:

Nature Conservation News: Animals, animal-rights, biodiversity, habitats, human impacts, wildlife, and many related topics.

Climate News: Climate change, global-warming, storms, human impacts, etc.

Warning: Pseudoscience is growing

Posted on May 27, 2015 by GarryRogers

Beware deceptive news

I wanted to caution everyone who looks to the Internet for news and opinion. False reports and biased opinions masquerading as reason and science are increasing (no, Pope Francis and President Obama are not planning to stage a coup in Texas). As I scan the news for stories worth repeating, I have had to become more scrupulous in checking content and sources. The major subjects for deceit are:

Energy production with fossil fuels (appearing in items about human-caused climate change and alternative energy sources),
Food production with pesticide resistant crops, economic benefits of logging, grazing, plowing, and pumping,
Security obtained with weapons sales and military might.

The most destructive effects of the trickery come from the rhetoric and decisions of politicians and government administrators controlled by private industry. The result is a massive barrage of deception and diversion of public funds to support the energy, chemical, land-use, and military industries. The pursuit of profits is preventing true progress and security.

I will continue to scan for accurate reports and honest opinion. Please lend a hand and tell me if you spot a false story that slipped past me. Thank you.

My online newsletters are produced by Scoop.It and RebelMouse. I control the sources, but it is always possible that one of my sources has been deceived by a particular story. The newsletters have different formats and appeal to different readers. Visit and see which you prefer.