Study after study (you’ve been reading them right, because I’ve little inclination to provide links to the stockpile o’ studies) have shown that fish stocks all over the world are in serious, serious decline. As in, 90% of the big fish have plumb disappeared. That is, disappeared into our bellies. A number of predictions have these same species going extinct altogether no later than the middle of the century. Yet, we remain in denial. THERE ARE SO MANY TUNA, after all, right? How can we possibly eat every last salmon?

Remember the passenger pigeon? The American bison? (check the pile of bison skulls above…just a few days of hunting…can you even fathom this?) Will we ever learn?

The answer is a resounding maybe. The U.S. government, long known the world over for its progressive attitude toward our fellow species (okay, compared to some), is now considering a total ban on salmon fishing off the U.S. Pacific coast. Pretty staggering, if you ask me. Yes, it’s an economic decision, one based on keeping fisheries afloat in the long haul (we daren’t kill them all today, when we want to kill them tomorrow!), but no matter which way you slice the sushi (dear god, did I just type that?), it’s a sound notion. READ MORE HERE. Then pick up the telephone and call your representatives. Urge them to vocally support this plan.

The front page of the S.F Chronicle today. What’s the lead story? Something about the tinderbox in Pakistan? Afghanistan? Kenya? Iraq? Oil coasting to $100 and beyond? The rapid devaluation of the U.S. dollar? No. Here’s what we get: THE DEADLY TOLL OF WIND POWER.

A bit of a dramatic headline, don’t you think? When paired with that sinister ‘robots in the fog’ photo, it seems to scream “WIND POWER IS EVIL!”. At a time when the world needs to embrace alternative energy, the Chronicle decides to find fault with a wind farm that is easy pickings. Focusing on the wind turbines at Altamont Pass in San Joaquin Valley, California, the article discusses the continuing bird kill caused by the old-school fast-moving, low to the ground turbines. Yes, many beautiful raptors smash themselves upon the turbine blades each year. Yes, this is fucking horrible. However, now is NOT the time to give anti-alternative energy proponents even a sliver of ammunition. All over the U.S., people are fighting new wind farms out of fear of lowered property values. Believe me, this article will only help the anti-wind power advocates. The Chronicle is so darned “liberal” (as if there is anything remotely liberal about lily-white, uber-rich NIMBY San Francisco) that it attacks ‘big business’ even when that big business is doing the right thing. What, may I ask, is the incentive for businesses to move toward a sustainable platform? When doing the right thing=making money = incurring the wrath of the mouthpiece of Hypocrisy City?

What of the birds killed each year by cars and trucks? Why isn’t that front page news? After all, news is a numbers game, right? The more killed in a suicide bombing, the closer the article gets to A1, right? Over 4000 birds were killed in 2004 by the Altamont turbines. How many birds were killed by U.S. drivers? BETWEEN 50 AND 100 MILLION. How many animals have YOU hit while driving? Unless you can say zero, or unless you’ve vowed to stop driving, you’ve no right to point fingers.

James Walker, president-elect of the industry-backed American Wind Energy Association, said the wind companies also want to save birds and are helping to fund the study of the problem. He also said wind power helps save bird lives by combatting global warming, which the National Audubon Society acknowledges as a threat to many bird species.
A bit tough to argue, don’t you think?

Also: Alameda County Supervisor Gail Steele…said both the wind industry and the birds need to be protected.“All environmentalists should support both things,” she said.

Amen, Gail.
The entire article is here.

birds, san francisco, wind power

After reading my post about how Darth Vader is zapping bumblebees with mobile phone rays, my friend Larry alerted me to THIS ARTICLE which talks about the mysterious decline of amphibian populations. Now, we all know that frogs and lizards are very sensitive to changes in their habitat and when this habitat is disturbed, their numbers fall precipitously. However, this article is discussing amphibians living IN A PROTECTED RAINFOREST PRESERVE. From the Guardian Unlimited article:

“Conservationists working in a lowland forest reserve at La Selva in Costa Rica used biological records dating from 1970 to show that species of frogs, toads, lizards, snakes and salamanders have plummeted on average 75% in the past 35 years.

The new findings suggest an unknown ecological effect is behind at least some of the sudden losses and have prompted scientists to call for urgent studies in other protected forest areas.

The study revealed sharp declines among two species of salamander, whose numbers fell on average 14.52% every year between 1970 and 2005. Frog species slumped too, with numbers of the mimicking rain frog falling 13.49%, the common tink frog 6.69%, and the strawberry poison frog 1.18% a year. Lizards suffered similar falls, with one species, the striped litter skink, down 10.03% each year, and orange-tailed geckos declining by 8.05% every year.

The researchers also analysed weather records for the region, which revealed a rise of more than 1C in temperature over the 35-year period and a doubling of the number of wet days.”

Could it be that amphibians, too, are sensitive to all the mobile phone machinations and endless barrage of radio and microwave transmissions? I don’t know the answer, but it makes me miserable thinking about what we’ve done.

Quintron the Amazing Spellcaster has written a paean to the lovely frog. It’s called FROGS-CLUB and I’m sure you’ll love it. It’s the Song O’ the Day here at todbrilliant.com [audio:frog.mp3]

[tags]kermit, darth-vader, quintron, bees[/tags]

Ever heard of “Colony Collapse Disorder”? Neither had I. At least not until I read this article in The Independent. The disorder affects bee populations and it refers to the unexplained phenomenon (cue X-Files theme) that occurs when the denizens of a bee hive suddenly disappear. Remember the mysterious dissapearance of the Anasazi? Of entire Mayan cities? Huge populations simply vanished, leaving their homes to never return. Now, it could be that space aliens are responsible, zapping both ancient humans and modern bees, but there now exists a new theory to help explain why bee populations have declined by as much as 80% - one which posits that mobile phone use is responsible, at least in part, for the huge drop in honeybee populations. While a portion of the decline can be attributed to pesticides and mites (namely the Varroa Vampire mite), it seems that cell phone signals are screwing with the wee bees’ built-in navigation systems. From the article:

They (scientists) are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Now, y’all understand that bees are, like, totally responsible for, like, our FOOD, right? In fact, bees pollinate 30% of the U.S. food supply - a huge percentage. You can see why it’s important to figure out what’s happening to our bees. While we test our devices to ensure they don’t harm humans (jury is still out on mobile phones and people, however, especially children), we aren’t as concerned with what our technology does to our co-inhabitants. Case in point: All the whale beaching caused by U.S. military high-powered sonar — another example of our wireless tech interfering with non-human navigation/communication. Such myopia could very well be harmful to humans after all. Messing with the food supply is a very grave mistake. We humans are rather dependent on the mighty bumblebee.

So, what to do? What if we can prove without a doubt that our cellular tech is destroying bee populations? Do you think we’ll stop using cell phones? Or will we allow the bees to die off? Ah, I can hear some of you saying, “We’ll simply adjust the frequencies of our transmissions.” Easier said than done, mate. Seriously, which action will we, as a civilization, take? How you answer this sheds a whole lot of light on whether or not we’re going to extricate ourselves from the looming environmental disasters.

Song of the day time! Death by Chocolate gives us “The Is Bumble Bee”. You know it, right? [audio:bee.mp3]

[tags]bees, mobile-phones, death-by-chocolate, colony-collapse-disorder, honeybees[/tags]

DISCLAIMER: I love beef eaters. Some of my best friends eat beef.

Turns out that a recent study has concluded that high beef consumption reduces fertility rates in men.

Hmmm. Maybe this is a GOOD thing, as it helps to slow the growth of the human population. Further, it reduces a specific gene pool - those who could really care less about the massive environmental damages caused by the beef industry (Read THIS ARTICLE: “Cattle Raised for Beef Cause More Damage to Planet than Emission from Cars”.)

Is it time to promote beef consumption as a short-term evil but a longterm benefit? After all, though many ‘environmentalists’ know that a vegetarian diet will result in a far greater reduction in emissions than the purchase of a Toyota Prius, many still refuse to make the dietary change - showcasing clearly their true commitment to alleviating climate change. Should they not be encouraged to consume a substance that will reduce their number?

While I’ve been touting Les Brown as the great eco-savior, perhaps it’s Les SCHWAB to whom I should be praying.

Song o’ the Day = “For All the Cows” by the Foo Fighters [audio:foo.mp3]

Proposed changes to the U.S. Endangered Species Act would, according to Damien Schiff, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation representing landowners and developers battling endangered species restrictions, provide a bit of extra electricity at the relatively small price of, oh, a few species going extinct. He explains things this a’way:

Under the version made public, plans for dams to provide electricity and irrigation for farming could proceed with less hindrance even if endangered or threatened species were present. He said that in an extreme case, it was possible a species could become extinct, but only if it was determined that a greater public value such as providing water or power was being served.

Anyone else have a serious problem with this? I’ve read these words a few times and I still can’t get it through my head that anyone can think like this in 2007.

This L.A. times article (thanks, Larry!) is a concise summation of this potentially disastrous legislation, including a listing of who is fighting for what is good and right, and who is fighting on the dark side.
Here’s a link to the Pacific Legal Foundation’s website: SmugEvildoers.com. Contact them, along with your representatives and let them know what you think of their proposed tinkering to the Endangered Species Act. I highly recommend calling multiple times daily, every day. From the Evildoers website, under ‘Endangered Species Act’:

In the process of designating critical habitat for species listed under the Endangered Species Act, regulators are required to consider the potential economic impact of their actions. All too often this critically important analysis is given little or no real consideration. Under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act Reform Project, PLF attorneys are challenging critical habitat designations and bringing into question whether the government truly has considered the real economic impact of its actions.

How many bad guys are out there? The PLF? Just another acronym to write down on my too-long list of Evil Organizations that Seek to Destroy the World.

[tags]endangered-species-act, damien-schiff, pacific-legal-foundation, climate-change, evil-bastards[/tags]

Well, it looks like Rep. Ron Paul is running away with the victory in my informal 2008 Presidential election poll (see below). This speaks to two things: That Paul’s organization sniffs out every internet lead (smart) and that the eco-sphere isn’t really gearing up yet for 2008. I believe the latter is partly because many of the “sustainability-set” don’t mind being taken for granted, knowing they’ll cast their vote for whatever candidate the Democrats serve up, irrespective of that candidate’s environmental record or position.

While I know that Paul is a staunch Constitutionalist (and this is a very good thing in my eyes - have I mentioned that I have Thomas Jefferson’s profile tattooed on my left thigh?), I don’t know much about his environmental record, position, or agenda. Maybe someone from Paul’s camp will read this and enlighten me.

Yet, to be fair to Paul and the other candidates, they don’t have to have much of an environmental agenda, as voters aren’t pushing for this as a top-five issue. Those who are will be neatly gobbled up by the Democrats, so their voices, no matter how shrill, will be rendered mute by a party whose track record on environmental issues is very mixed, at best. Yes, I can hear the “but they’ve done more than the Republicans” protests even now. And this means, what, exactly?

 UPDATE: Paul seems to have ZERO environmental agenda, judging from early responses by his adherents. Guess we’ll have to keep on looking for a candidate.

I’ve decided to take the new Conservative approach to climate change. That is, I’m going to try to look on the bright side. Thus, this is the first in what will be an intermiitent series of “Global Warming BENEFIT!” posts.

For several years, Japanese researchers have been working toward the resurrection of the long-extinct woolly mammoth. They’ve even started building a Jurassic Park-style theme park - details of which can be found in this archived article.

A stumbling block, however, has been access to the remains of the estimated millions of frozen mammoth carcasses that have been well-preserved in the Siberian permafrost. Recently, however, with the advent of a benign global warming trend, this permafrost has been melting and rather obligingly offering up scores of new prehistoric corpses for DNA extraction. Thanks to God’s plan for a bucolic, tropical Earth, we may see woolly (shaved for comfort, of course) mamoths frolicking in a zoo new near you within twenty years!

And, of course, the musical tie-in:

The Elephant Song

Big thanks to “Garret” for alerting me to THIS GROUP who have dedicated themselves to stopping the horrific violence shown in the video below. Garret also reminded me that it’s one thing to point out the troubles in the world, but another altogether to provide an avenue for change. Fair enough and true enough. I’ll try to be better about providing links to organizations that are doing the right thing, working to make the world more livable, equitable and sustainable.

Okay, now be warned. This is the most horrible, horrible footage I have ever witnessed, of anything, anywhere. Without exception. I bring this video to your attention only because it’s critical that we deeply and truly understand the reality of the wholesale disregard for the future of our planet. If this doesn’t bring to your knees, head in your hands with tears and remorse, you’ve either seen it before, or you’ve become numbed to tragedy, your soul deadened by the sweeping ennui that, as much as anything else, may well spell our collective doom. Many of us in First World nations tend to cavalierly believe that we have advanced, that we are a kindler, gentler species, that we need only democracy, solar panels, and Al Gore to change the world.

Go ahead, watch the video. Make sure you fully understand that we need a lot more than that. Make absolutely certain that you recognize that the actions captured on this video reflect with precision the very nature of the human species that has propelled us, and so many other species, to the brink.