Stop Renewed Wolf Hunting

In the State of Idaho we are about to see another round of wolf hunting. It could start as soon as the next storm coming in now has cleared the area. This time they will use the radio collars humans put on the wolves to locate them. Unfair advantage, yes.  But no matter they say, let the wolf hunting begin!

Once the snow falls then the hunters from the USDA in their helicopters will take to the air. They will use the radio collars that the wolves wear to zero in on the location of the packs. Then while the wolves are bogged down in the snow they can shoot them from the air.

Like the hunting of the grizzly bear in Alaska this is supposedly to stem predation on a natural prey animal.  In this case it is elk.

Of course, man blames the wolf for elk losses, not himself. No one in Idaho is asking if habitat change or over hunting by man could be the source of dwindling elk in the area.  Maybe instead of executing the wolf we could call a halt to the elk hunting season for a few years?

Time is short on this issue if it is to be halted. You can learn more and sign a petition to halt this action by visiting our friends at The Center for Biological Diversity.

Thanks in advance for your time and support.

Posted in Action for Animals, Animals, Endangered Species, National Parks & Wilderness Areas | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

More News About Fracking

FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2012 file photo, Gillie Waddington of Enfield, N.Y., raises a fist during rally against hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells at the Legislative Office Building in Albany, N.Y. President Barack Obama the f- word during his recent State of the Union speech nor did he mention the technology used to get it, known commonly as fracking. That's because the word has become a lightning rod. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

Another fracking article written by my son and cross posted from our sister blog luna canus.

In the short time that has passed since President Obama’s State of The Union Address the issue of fracking is starting to get more and public attention. I am forced to wonder now if the Obama is really in favor of this dangerous way of powering our nation. He could have actually outwitted the Republican party yet again, a goal not hard to achieve these days.

So how did he do it? First by giving it a mention in the SOTU speech he appeased the whole “drill baby drill” crowd and their big energy backers. Second by giving that mention he drew public attention to the process and started many people asking what this cheap energy source will mean to them.

The spotlight of attention is not a thing that any company seeks and given the recent problems in the oil and gas industry they should want to hide in the shadows. That however, is not where they are any longer.People are looking at the fracking process and they are not at all pleased with what they are finding out about it. As a result more protest groups are forming and growing stronger against this form of energy retrieval.

What is there to like about the fracking process? I have been studying it for some time now and though I am neither a Phd nor an expert on the subject, the more I learn the more I oppose it.

A simple Internet search will yield many pages of information. I tend to ignore most of the self serving propaganda that the firms involved release. After all according to BP the Deep Water Horizon was in perfect working order and Massey energy would tell you that the Upper Big Branch Mine was a safe working environment. These energy companies would have told you that right up to the very second before they exploded. Sadly, we have seen time and again how big business will lie to make one more dollar and I do not see why they should change now. Considering that this process could produce over a century of profits most of these people are drooling over the potential profits.

On the other hand you can find reports from the EPA, Doctors at leading medical universities, geologists and even the United States Army Corps of Engineers reporting on the dangers of fracking. Polluted water and soil, health problems and even earthquakes are among some the issues related to this drilling process.

The statement President Obama made on the subject was:

We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years, and my administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy.”

The catch phrase is “safely develop”. What if it turns out that given the long and growing list of dangers to the process there is no way it can be safely developed?

What happens if enough people look more at the issue now because of the President’s statement and oppose fracking all together? What if they tell their friends and this opposition grows into a movement? What would the big energy companies do if the American people refused to allow them to destroy our nation?

You can read more about the growing protest against fracking at RT.

Posted in Chemicals, Climate Change, Drilling, Energy, Fracking, Toxins | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

We Cannot Fix the Environment
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If this skull is found in the future, those who find it will wonder what sort of beings these were who tried to completely obliterate our home?

For many people around the world, if they see something broken they feel almost compelled to fix it. Be it a car or animal or a home we feel the need to set it right. However, one thing has become obvious over the last several decades. There is one thing that is just too big to fix and every time we attempt to do so we only seem to make matters worse.

That one thing is our environment. By the very presence of human beings our world is being stripped  of any form of balance. Be it through greed, an accidental introduction or simply a lack of care we just seem to keep making the problem worse.

The environment and natural habitats for many plants and animals are being destroyed by global warming. Among these are the polar bear and walrus in the north, all big cat populations around the globe and most of the worlds bear species.

Now Alaska has announced that they will allow hunting of bears from the air in an effort to protect caribou and moose populations. In some areas there are too many bears forced into ever shrinking areas and it is taking a toll on the local caribou and moose. In the areas that no longer have bears, the ranking predator of the area, the population of moose and caribou is growing out of control. Soon that is another problem man will try to fix.

In Australia the kangaroo is now being relentlessly hunted. Why? Because the wild dingo, the kangaroo’s natural predator is almost extinct. Also koala bears are suffering losses due to the removal of eucalyptus trees and long periods of extremely hot weather brought about by climate change.

The rain forests around the world are all in jeopardy and we cannot even begin to know the number of species our world has lost. Whether it is burning the forest for farmland, clearing them for development or  as in parts of Asia, having an aggressive tree introduced that is choking out all the native plants, we are losing the rain forests at an alarming rate.

In Hawaii an invasion of non-native plants is underway and as beautiful as the state may be I fear I would lose my sanity if I moved there. A small frog the size of a quarter is overrunning portions of the state and its mating call is as loud as a car alarm. This frog mates year round so every night outside your bedroom window there could be thousands of them calling away cutting into your rest.

Pythons invading the Florida Everglades, wild mustangs being hunted down in Nevada and wolves shot on sight in Wyoming. The list just goes on and on and on and on……..

All while we try again and again to fix the problems we have caused to a system that established itself  millions of years before the first man took his first step. A system I am sure will be around long after the human race is studied by the next intelligent species the way we study the dinosaur today.

What we can do and has been proven to work is a combination of prevention, education and conservation. We need more and ever more people who care. We must be more careful about allowing plants and animals into areas where they do not belong. We need to protect the species that are in danger today and give them a chance to rebound from our constant tinkering with the ecosystem.

We need stronger laws to protect our air and water plus regulations that would reign in major polluters and give us clean air and vehicles. If the people of this world can take a firm stand and actually begin to care we may survive. If not we are as doomed as the dinosaur through a disaster of our own design.

Posted in Animals, Climate Change, Global Warming, Rain Forests | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment