Brazil inflames forest fires with pro-deforestation laws

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New laws under consideration will likely spark more tree-cutting − despite serious drought already contributing to a big increase in vast destructive fires.

Of last year’s fires, 8,000 occurred in the central region, where the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia share borders. This area, which encroaches on the cerrado, a vast tropical savanna ecoregion that is one of Brazil’s most threatened biomes, has become a fast-developing new agricultural powerhouse, producing soy, maize and cotton.  From: www.climatechangenews.com

GR:  Toxic wastes, global warming, livestock grazing, and farming are eliminating forests, shrublands, grasslands, and soils.  The losses are heartbreaking.  The realization that instead of slowing or stopping the losses are accelerating is dumbfounding.

World’s wildlife trade regulator meets to assess compliance with multilateral rules, strengthen measures to prevent extinctions and tackle illicit trafficking | CITES

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This post includes summary statements on several popular species. I’ve included grey parrots here as an example.
“The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently the range State with the largest volume of exports of wild-sourced grey parrots. According to trade records reported by importing countries, DRC has exceeded the annual export quota for various consecutive years. There are no recent scientific studies on the status of the DRC populations of grey parrot, which can provide a science base for the establishment of quotas. There are however suggestions that the populations are declining. Furthermore, there exists an alarmingly high rate of mortality (50% or higher) in domestic transport before the export takes place.

“In the light of the current situation, the Standing Committee is asked to consider a recommendation for all Parties to suspend commercial trade in grey parrots from DRC until all the concerns and recommendations have been sufficiently addressed.”  From: cites.org

GR:  CITES appears to have no ability to reduce poaching or illegal trafficking in endangered species.  The organization follows ponderously behind as popular species are captured or killed for fun, food, and profit. Of course, there have been valuable contributions by CITES, but Earth’s animals and plants are dying so rapidly now that the contributions have little meaning. One might argue that the damage caused by a gathering of 500 participants from across the globe exceeds the value of the organization’s continued existence.

So, what can we do to protect wildlife?

Most people might say that they appreciate wild animals and plants and want them to survive. People have paid for wildlife refuges, landscape linkages, inventories, ecological research, and interventions on behalf of endangered species. However, these conservation efforts have not offset the harm caused by air pollution, construction, invasive species, farming, livestock production, and trafficking. Will we act to increase spending for conservation? Will we act to begin reducing our population? Perhaps both answers are yes, but if we ask if our acts will be sufficient to protect wildlife, the answer is probably no.

Australian Bushfires Signal New Climate Dangers – MAHB

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“The recent bushfires in Western Australia were much more than “bush” fires as they raged through mature crops of wheat, barley, canola and oats, and pastures where many thousands of sheep grazed. The fires claimed four lives and the livelihoods of many farmers as the estimated financial losses of crops and farm animals reached A$60m – a figure expected to rise steeply as the full extent of the damage emerged. One report showed a loss of 15,000 sheep and many cattle.[1] The fires swept eastwards and in South Australia additional fires caused more deaths of people and farm animals and burned through vast areas of mature crops and grazing lands.[2]”

From: mahb.stanford.edu

GR:  This story is about food for humans.  The more important issue is the long-term effects of the fires.  Followed by invasive plants and soil erosion, fires are transforming vast stretches of native vegetation into weedlands. The damage to soils, native plants, and wildlife diminishes the diversity and health of ecosystems and reduces productivity and carrying capacity.

The Carbon Bubble is Bursting

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Carbon bubbles arrive.

Carbon bubbles arrive.

GR:  Let’s hope that former coal and oil cheerleaders, investors, and employees can make a smooth transition to wind and solar.

robertscribbler's avatarrobertscribbler

I admit it. I felt sorry for those poor, duped oil, gas and coal company investors back during the early part of 2015. Many of these guys, fed a constant stream of bad information from the financial news sources, at the time were still enraptured by the notion that fossil fuel stocks were then cheap and that the situation was nothing more than some kind of golden buying opportunity.

Now, six months later, 41 US oil and gas companies have gone bankrupt, powerful major oil companies like Exxon and BP are in the range of 20-40 percent losses in stock price year-on-year, most gas companies have seen even more severe losses, and most coal companies have been reduced to junk stock status (see Arch Coal declares bankruptcy). TransCanada, the parent company of the canceled Keystone XL Pipeline, is challenging United States sovereignty with its 15 billion dollar…

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If Golden Globes Host Ricky Gervais Gives Out Prestigious Awards to His Favorite Animal Abusers

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  1. Worst Performance as a “Conservationist” 2. Worst Supporting Actress to the Above Jerk 3. Lifetime of Cruelty in Entertainment Achievement Award 4. Worst Original Idea to Abuse Animals for Sport 5.  From: exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com

GR:  Applaud this celebrity for making an effort that most of our elected leaders avoid. It’s great that the award show organizers allowed Ricky Gervais the time to do this.  Definitely worth a look.

Numbers dwindle at Mexico’s mountain of butterflies

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“The number of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) wintering in Mexico plunged this year to its lowest level since studies began in 1993, leading experts to announce Wednesday that the insects’ annual migration from the United States and Canada is in danger of disappearing.

“A study released by the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico’s Environment Department and the Natural Protected Areas Commission blames the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, as well as the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend on for shelter.”  From: www.theguardian.com

GR:  This Guardian story is worth repeating. It covers the situation very well. It highlights the conservation failure of NAFTA and the disastrous consequences of Monsanto’s war on wildlife. Of course, the Monarch, like the Honey Bees, is just one of the many species being destroyed by pesticides and destructive harvest of the natural environment.

Rugged individualism and Independence with a government safety net

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“The standoff in Harney County Oregon highlights one of the great ironies of the rural West. More than any other people, western rural residents are more heavily dependent on government (read taxpayer) largesse than any other part of America. Yet the average rural resident sees himself/herself as a “rugged and independent” individual and by the way, “hard working” to boot. They may indeed work hard—but no harder than anyone else in this country, but more than other residents, their work and lifestyles are dependent on government and subsidies.

“From the pioneer days onward, the federal government has subsidized western rural lifestyles. The earliest federal military expeditions exploring potential trade route, military roads, and railroad routes as well as the military outposts that protected the “independent” western frontier communities from the Native people to the US Army expeditions which helped to subdue the “savages” and sequester them on reservations—all done with tax money from others citizens to largely benefit the western frontier men and women.”  From: www.thewildlifenews.com

GR:  Ranchers I’ve known often boasted about how much money they got from the federal government.  Money they could use to buy guns, hunting dogs, and vehicles for recreational killing of coyotes, mountain lions, foxes, deer, antelope, and really, anything that moved. Guns they could take to public meetings whenever the BLM tried to control grazing to preserve the public land it leased at token rates to the ranchers.

Deepwater Horizon On Land: Porter Ranch’s Neverending Gas Leak Prompts California State of Emergency

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Porter Ranch activists opposing fossil fuels.

Dec. 12 demonstration at the SoCalGas Porter Ranch site (Alan Weiner, 350.org)

GR:  Energy industry lies might be the most reprehensible in their consequences for the global environment and all its species. However, they resemble the lies told by the chemical industry about pesticides, the lies told by the financial institutions about economic affairs, the lies told by the arms industry about the need for weapons and military support in other countries, the lies told by the insurance industry in its efforts to collect premiums but not fulfill obligations, and the lies of our elected representatives who protect the corporations that fund their power and lifestyles. The cumulative effect of the lies by our major corporations (e.g., VW) is that people are losing respect for the industries they support through their labor and consumption. I don’t think “Made in America” means what it did when I was a beginning consumer. Here are a few stories on divesting as a means to limit the power of our untrustworthy industries (https://garryrogers.com/?s=divest&submit=Search).

robertscribbler's avatarrobertscribbler

It’s the gas leak that just won’t end. One whose impacts have now become so wide-ranging that it has prompted California governor Brown to issue a declaration of emergency. But, even with vast state resources now in place to help deal with this disaster, the impacts are likely to be long-lasting and far-reaching. Serious impacts both to public health and to California’s contribution to global atmospheric, oceanic, and glacial warming.

A Dangerous Industry With Long-Lasting Impacts

(The Environmental Defense Fund issued this aerial infrared footage of a massive gas leak at Porter Ranch, California. In total, more than 250 million pounds of the gas has already leaked from the disaster site — increasing California’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25 percent, sickening hundreds of local residents, and forcing the evacuation of more than 2,000 homes. Video Source: The Environmental Defense Fund.)

Poking holes in the Earth or…

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Anti-government ranchers received over $4 million in taxpayer subsidies in 2014

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“Last June, the ranchers in middle-of-nowhere Battle Mountain, Nevada, stuck it to the federal government by herding cattle onto public rangeland which had been closed to grazing to protect it from the West’s blistering drought. Meanwhile, many of those protesting were collecting drought subsidies.

“This final act of hypocrisy ended two years of rancher protests against the grazing restrictions imposed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is responsible for thousands of miles of arid federal land in Nevada. The BLM backed down and opened the range.

“By claiming that drought regulations were personal attacks, even as they received hefty checks, the Nevada ranchers got their way. According to Reveal, who obtained records related to the entire ordeal, two ranching families at the center of the protests received over $2 million in subsidies.”  From: deadstate.org

GR:  I just wanted to remind everyone that American ranchers, in collusion with the U. S. Bureau of Land Management and the U. S. Forest Service, have destroyed our public lands in order to line their pockets.  They are not good stewards of the land, they are avaricious abusers that have cost us the lives of our native wildlife and vegetation.  Learn more, search for livestock grazing at http://garryrogers.com.