Conservation vs Slaughter - The US Election

Hillary Clinton has been in awe of elephants since a trip to Africa nearly 20 years ago.  As Secretary of State she pushed an aggressive conservation agenda for the Obama Administration and implemented an $80 million anti-poaching program through the Clinton Global Initiative.  She is committed to wildlife conservation.

“I love the way…the matriarch of the family looks for everybody, I just have such a sense of connection to elephants and it just breaks my heart that they are being poached and murdered and babies being left to fend for themselves,” Clinton said on a portion of the show that only aired on Facebook.

Clinton’s affinity for elephants is not widely known or reported. But during her tenure as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, she helped bring the issue of global wildlife trafficking out of obscurity.

“International criminal syndicates are orchestrating the slaughter of many of the world’s iconic wildlife species and profiteering by marketing ivory, rhinoceros horn, and other wildlife parts in the U.S., Asia, and Europe,” said Jorge Silva, a spokesperson for the Clinton Campaign. “Many of the criminal syndicates have ties with, and are helping to fund, terrorist groups around the world, and also are engaged in human, drug, and arms trafficking.”

When asked for input regarding Donald Trump position on elephant conservation The Guardian got no response.  Of course, you could infer the Trump position on conservation from this photo of his namesake son, taken just after Trump Junior had shot and killed an elephant. 

 The Trump campaign did not respond to repeated requests for its position on elephant conservation or the global wildlife trade, but its website mentions neither. This is not surprising given the website lists very few positions regarding any environmental issues, including making no mention of climate change – although Donald Trump has claimed that climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese.

In 2012, media leaked photos of Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, taken during a big game hunt safari in Zimbabwe. In one image, Donald Trump Jr. stands next to an elephant he shot to death and holds up its severed tail. Cutting off an elephant’s tail is traditional in some African cultures where the hair is made into a bracelet.

Trump Can’t Stop Lying

During last week’s presidential debate Donald Trump denied that he had routinely claimed “climate change” to be a hoax. 

After just 18 minutes of the debate, conversation between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump quickly transitioned to renewable energy jobs as they discussed the economy. During that exchange, Clinton slipped in the well-known fact that Trump believes climate change is "a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese." Though he has called climate change a hoax numerous times since 2012, he still interrupted Clinton to reject that claim.

Here are 11 times Donald Trump called climate change a hoax—compiled by the Sierra Club Political Committee—despite him telling 100 million people last night that he never said it:

But, perhaps it is more telling who Trump has employed as his climate change advisor.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s energy policy to dig, drill, and frack as much fossil fuel out of the ground as possible only really works by denying two realities.

The first reality denied is that there is no global agreement to move the world away from the fuels that Trump thinks are the future. The second reality denied, of course, is the existence of decades of scientific evidence linking fossil fuel burning to dangerous climate change.

So with this in mind, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) Myron Ebell seems a perfect addition to Trump’s team.

As the U.S. media picks through the entrails from the first presidential debate, a few hours earlier it was revealed that should Trump win, Ebell would lead the Republican’s “EPA transition team” that would strip the agency of key powers.

Ebell has long fought the legitimacy of climate science while promoting fossil fuels — epitomizing Trump’s current approach to energy and climate science.  For the best part of 20 years, Ebell has been actively working in favor of the fossil fuel industry by attempting to undermine climate science.

A Trump victory would be more than a disaster for the United States, it would be a catastrophe for the entire planet.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 25, 2016

“Barbaric elephant slaughter creates horror scene”

From Namibia’s Informante site.

Residents at a well-known Namibian tourist lodge on the banks of the Okavango River had to watch helplessly as a horrific slaughter of elephants played out in front of their eyes just across the border in Angola.

At least five men armed with AK-47 automatic assault rifles attacked a group of about 40 elephants grazing peacefully in the long grass along the river.

According to Hennie Burger who saw the horrific attack on the elephants the attack on the animals happened less than 150 metres from where he was standing.

“The men suddenly appeared out of the bushes on the Angolan side of the river. They started firing at the animals with the assault rifles set to full automatic and what ensued could only be described as tragic carnage. At least three elephants were mortally wounded and the noise they made was horrifying.”

Of course is this any worse than the Trump families contempt for wild creatures?

Donald Jr with tail of elephant he destroyed.

…photos quickly resurfaced of Donald Trump's sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, posing with the dead bodies of several exotic animals, including an African elephant and leopard, they had previously hunted for sport.

Speaking of Trump

Here’s a person who has no interest in anything but his own self-interest.

Donald Trump has vowed to continue fighting the windfarm development off the coast from his Aberdeenshire golf course, branding the project an act of “public vandalism”.

The US presidential candidate returned to the fray after Swedish energy company Vattenfall confirmed on Thursday that it is going ahead with its £300m investment, despite last month’s EU referendum vote.

The offshore windfarm has been dogged by years of bitter legal wrangles between Trump and the Scottish government over its impact on his golf course, which the tycoon ultimately lost in the courts last year.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization insisted that several of planning conditions associated with the project had yet to be fully satisfied. They said that the New York-based billionaire would be lodging formal objections with Marine Scotland, as well as pursuing additional remedies before the European courts if necessary.

On Last Though on Donald Trump

He’s on the Russian payroll and wants to destroy the United States.  Or so it would seem.

Corruption Allows Poaching

Numerous African countries failing to enforce CITES provisions.  Corruption trumps (see what I did there) conservation.

Global wildlife conservationists are demanding parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species of Wild and Fauna Flora (CITES) comply with wildlife laws.

Authors of a recent released report on the Elephant Wildlife Trade Information System, Traffic, a global network fighting ivory trade, told DW that governments were failing to submit annual reports about ivory stocks.

Tom Milliken, the Elephant and Rhino Program Leader for Traffic, said there had been an expansion of wildlife smuggling networks across Africa in which Chinese and Vietnamese nationals were working with corrupt local officials.

"They are involved in syndicates and moving ivory across Africa and then to Asia." he said.

He said that cooperation in law enforcement between the countries involved in smuggling the ivory and those where it originated could save elephants from extinction.

"If the governments of China and Vietnam were to station wildlife trade investigators who would work with Africans, we would be able to dismantle the transnational syndicates that are driving the trade." Milliken said.

What Good Are Zoos – Part Infinite

Scottish wildcats are probably hybrids, but they still carry the wildcat DNA.

Four astonishingly cute and vitally important kittens have been born at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park.

These aren’t just any kittens. They’re Scottish wildcats (Felis silvestris grampia), one of the rarest feline subspecies on the planet. These wildcats—also known as Highland tigers—nearly went extinct due to habitat loss, persecution by farmers and game-bird hunters, and hybridization with feral and domestic cats (F. catus). Today just a few hundred of these critically endangered tabbies live in the wild, many of which now carry hybrid genetics.

That’s where the Highland Wildlife Park comes in. As part of the Scottish Wildcat Action initiative, the park has spent the past few years helping to breed these rare animals in captivity. The new kittens—three from one litter, one from a second—represent the latest victory in that effort.

Science – Most of the World is for it

Good stuff when science and technology are turned loose.

The EuroScience Open Forum is a huge event held every two years that brings researchers, policymakers, and regular folks together to promote science and innovation. This year, Manchester will host a broad range of workshops, events, and contests.

And then in the United States.

Bill Nye “the Science Guy” worries kids are being brainwashed at Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter. Nye recently paid a visit to Ken Ham’s life-size version of Noah’s Ark. He was not pleased.

After the visit Nye expressed his frustration with the Christian fundamentalist project based on discredited science and a literal interpretation of Genesis. Noting that the Ark was an eye-catching attraction that was “much more troubling or disturbing than I thought it would be,” Nye told NBC News:

It’s all very troubling. You have hundreds of school kids there who have already been indoctrinated and who have been brainwashed.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 12, 2016

Turn Out the Lights

So, last week we learned that half of the human race can no longer see the stars of the Milky Way.  Now we learn that someday soon the summer will devoid of the lights of the firefly.  We seem content to destroy all that is beautiful and wondrous about the natural world.

Blink and you’ll miss them this summer. Around the world, people are reporting that local firefly populations are shrinking or even disappearing.

The insect’s dilemma first came to the world’s attention at the 2010 International Firefly Symposium, where researchers from 13 nations presented evidence of firefly population declines and declared “an urgent need for conservation of their habitats.” Since then, additional conferences and several scientific papers have documented regional firefly disappearances, and at least two citizen-science projects are attempting to document the phenomenon, but the full scope of the problem remains to be uncovered, says firefly researcher Ben Pfeiffer, founder of Firefly.org, a website about the decline of the insects, also called lightning bugs.

The loss of fireflies, which are actually beetles, can have multiple effects on their ecosystems. For one thing, some firefly species—there are at least 170 in the U.S.—play a role in pollination. They’re not as essential as bees, but they help pollinate milkweed, goldenrod, wild sunflowers, and other species.

More important, however, firefly larvae are voracious predators that live in the ground and eat slugs, snails, worms, aphids, and other problem critters that would otherwise grow out of control. “I call them nature’s pest control,” Pfeiffer said. (On the other side of the dinner table, fireflies are also important food sources for species such as bats and spiders.)

Climate Changes Clouds

One effect of climate change is to shift the pattern of clouds both away from the mid-latitudes and higher above the earth.  The result of that climate change driven shift is more warming which drives even more extreme climate events.  It’s a loop folks and we need to stop it.

The distribution of clouds all across the Earth has shifted...

And moreover, it has shifted in such a way — by expanding subtropical dry zones, located between around 20 and 30 degrees latitude in both hemispheres, and by raising cloud tops — as to make global warming  worse.

“As global warming occurs, there’s the expectation that the storm track will shift closer to the pole and the dry areas of the subtropics will expand poleward,” said Joel Norris, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and the study’s lead author. The work was conducted with scientists at Scripps, the University of California at Riverside, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Colorado State University.

Not just one but both of these changes to clouds are “positive feedbacks” to climate change — tending to make warming worse.

Moving cloud tracks toward the poles enhances warming because at higher latitudes, less solar radiation strikes the Earth — so white clouds are reflecting less of it away from the planet than they would if they were closer to the tropics and the Equator, Norris said. Meanwhile, he continued, higher cloud tops in effect thicken the total column of cloud, and that means more trapping of infrared or heat radiation that would otherwise exit to space.

Trump Could End the World (as we know it)

Is there anyone who doesn’t think Donald Trump would be a climate catastrophe?  Yesterday, we pointed out that U.K. prime ministerial hopeful Andrea Leadsom was close to the most egregious climate deniers in the U.S.  And, now she’s out of contention for the prime minister job.  Let’s see if it works on Trump.

To prevent climate change that floods large portions of coastal cities, dooms small island nations and turns whole regions into deserts, we need to accelerate the transformation of the world’s energy economy away from fossil fuels. Those who have crunched the numbers say this can still be achieved, but just barely. Hitting the brakes would send us over the cliff.

Over we go if Donald Trump wins the election and carries through on his campaign promises. The effects on the global climate will persist not only for the four or eight years of his presidency, but for generations.

Barack Obama’s fight against climate change centers on a plan to reduce the use of coal (the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions). Trump has vowed to cancel this plan, somehow revive the US coal industry and support domestic production of oil and natural gas.

He hasn’t been overtly hostile to solar, another major source, but the plummeting price (and hence growing competitiveness) of solar are largely driven by low-cost panels from China. Trump’s promised trade wars could end the days of cheap solar here.

If the US – historically the world’s largest emitter, with high per capita emissions – refuses to act, and if it withdraws from the Paris agreement and reneges on its pledge to help developing countries deal with climate change (as Trump has also promised to do), the leaders of India and other developing countries will face great political pressure at home to follow the easy path of using more coal.

Yes, More About Dogs (and conservation)

Namibia has the largest population of cheetahs in Africa.  As every apex predator, the cheetah is under incredible pressure.  In Namibia there is a vast array of programs and organizations working to protect cheetahs, while also protecting farmers whose herds are victims of cheetah predation.  Of course, dogs can help.

Cheetahs, the fastest land animals on Earth, have been disappearing almost as fast as they can run.

But in the African country of Namibia, the cheetah population has grown from 2,500 to 4,000 since 1994. And dogs are helping to keep those numbers rising.

Instead of trapping or shooting cheetahs that wander onto their property and kill livestock, some farmers are relying on Anatolian Shepherds and their fierce barking to scare away the predators.

“You may see in history that this dog can be responsible for saving the cheetah from extinction,” Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, told CBS News. “That is one heck of a story right there.”

You can help put more dogs to work in Namibia or contribute to other projects that are helping to protect and preserve cheetahs here.

CCF’s renowned Livestock Guarding Dog Program has been highly effective at reducing predation rates and thereby reducing the inclination by farmers to trap or shoot cheetahs. CCF breeds Anatolian shepherd and Kangal dogs, breeds that for millennia have guarded small livestock against wolves and bears in Turkey. The dogs are placed with Namibian farmers as puppies. They bond with the herd and us their imposing presence and loud bark to scare away potential predators.

Guard dogCCF has been placing dogs since 1994 and our research shows the dogs are highly effective, reducing livestock loss from all predators by over 80 and up to 100 percent. Farmers adopt CCF dogs and participate in education on how to train the dog. CCF does on site follow up visits to ensure the dogs have proper training and medical care, and are settling into their guardian role. Farmers have enthusiastically embraced the program, and there is now a two year waiting list for puppies. CCF had placed nearly 500 dogs by the end of 2013. CCF research shows that the people’s attitudes towards predators are changing as a result of this and other CCF programs.

Pure Blind Hate

Hatred of wolves is part of the DNA of many ranchers and politicians in the American West.  The Department of the interior walks a fine line supporting both wolves and ranchers.  And it is always the wolves that suffer in the end.

The investigation by the Department of Interior Office of the Inspector General, expected to be made public today, substantiates many of the allegations made by Catron County in a 2013 complaint – namely that the service protected “genetically valuable” wolves in the wild, even after they preyed on cattle, did not tell residents when wolves were near and did not fully compensate ranchers for cattle killed by wolves.

Ranchers in the area have long been against the reintroductions that began in 1998, since they are prone to losing livestock to wolf depredations. The report substantiates claims that ranchers were not fully compensated for their losses during the former coordinator’s tenure.

“Most said that they received compensation for only a small percentage of the cattle they lost,” the report said, adding that ranchers blame the difficulty of confirming that a missing or dead animal has been killed by a wolf as well as unresponsiveness and past interference in investigations by the field office.

To these ranchers and politicians no coexistence is possible, so when Federal officials tend to protect the wolves, they get slapped down.  While, it remains open season on wolves.

Wildlife officials are investigating the deaths of three Mexican gray wolves.

Authorities say one wolf was found in New Mexico and another two in Arizona but they’re not releasing details.

It’s another blow to the wolf reintroduction program run by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service along with state agencies.

Over the years that program has been plagued by legal battles and illegal wolf killings.