Mamma Cheetah

Hanging out in the Maasai Mara.  --- Africa Geographic

More Compassion Than A Republican

New research at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany found that African grey parrots will help their peers even if they don’t gain anything from it. The findings could help inform how altruism and prosocial behavior evolved in humans.  --- ZME Science

If only  we could find a way to enhance the behavior in humans.

Paranoia = Freedom In Idaho

In south-eastern Idaho an effort to build a wildlife crossing over a busy highway was stopped by fierce local opposition.  Just a few hundred locals spurred on by a local right wing/libertarian opinion writer in a free local “newspaper” stopped a life saving wildlife crossing.  Crossing like the one proposed for Targhee Pass are being built in many western states.  They save both wildlife and humans.

That trend is driven by financial motives as well as ecological ones. Collisions not only kill valuable game animals, they often result in property damage and even hospital bills. Marcel Huijser, a research ecologist at the Western Transportation Institute, has estimated that each North American deer crash costs society around $6,600, elk $17,500, and moose more than $30,000. Virtually every Western state has jumped on the crossing bandwagon…

The Idaho crossing project was abandoned because the locals apparently believe that they have a God given right to their scenic views and personal use of public lands. Of course, there is also the uniquely right-wing belief that the government is always lying about its motivation and is really working to restrict the rights of “real American.”

Often, unfounded speculation stoked the argument’s flames. Throughout 2017, the Island Park News reposted articles by Karen Schumacher, a blogger for right-wing sites like Redoubt News and Gem State Patriot. Schumacher, who had roots in Island Park, asserted that the overpasses were a red herring: The structures, she wrote, were insidious tools for the dispossession of private property, the vanguard of a “systematic agenda to alter where and how we live.”

So, the wildlife crossing near Targhee Pass is dead. Just as will be lots animals who try and cross the busy highway and not incidentally some humans who don’t survive those wildlife vs auto encounters.

Coal Lovers and Rupert Murdoch

Mural inTottenham, Melbourne.                             Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Rupert Murdoch is best known in the US as the man who created Fox News in order to push his right wing agenda.  He got his start in his native Australia, where his “news” outlets continue to strongly support the country’s right wing coal loving government.  Of course, since burning coal is a major factor in global warming, Murdoch’s media empire needs to ensure that climate change isn’t considered as a potential cause for Australia’s current flammable state.  Murdoch’s hand picked Prime Minister, Scott Morrison [mural above], is one of the coal industry’s chief cheerleaders.

A recent segment from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation rounded up examples of the climate denial pushed by conservative pundits in the Australian media, most of whom work for outlets owned by News Corp. For example, Peter Gleeson, a commentator at Sky News Australia and a columnist at The Courier-Mail, attacked a former fire chief who connected the fires to climate change as having “joined a cult” and “been brainwashed.” Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin not only denied the role of climate change in the fires, but also claimed that “there is no doubt ... that two decades-plus of climate change activism is making them worse.” Sky News Australia host Chris Kenny called the debate about the role of climate change in the fires “dumb,” “reckless,” and “offensive.” The Herald-Sun’s Terry McCrann attacked the media outside of Murdoch’s grasp for their coverage of the bushfires and denied their connection to climate change. In a November 6 monologue, Sky’s Andrew Bolt, a habitual climate denier who once attacked 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg as “deeply disturbed” and “strange,” called the “big global warming scare” a “con.”

They Won't Stop Until There is Nothing Left

The fossil fuel industry is at war with renewable energy everywhere in the US, but most decidedly in Republican controlled states.  The oil and gas industry gets the most bang for its bucks buying Republican politicians in states where those politicians can most effectively impact the growth of alternate sources of energy such as wind power.  In Ohio, tax payers foot the bill for fossil fuel subsidies and farmers who have been impacted by Trump's foolish tariffs are blocked from using their land for potential wind turbine revenue.  

Anti-wind websites like Master Resource and National Wind Watch are funded, often in roundabout ways, by fossil fuel interests; Wind Watch doesn’t directly receive donations from these groups, but one of its leaders, Tom Stacy, has done consulting for pro-fossil fuel think tanks. Master Resource is run by the Institute for Energy Research, which has ties to multiple oil and gas interests, including Charles Koch.

The fossil fuel industry won't quit until the planet is burned out wasteland. 

The End of Insects

The world must eradicate pesticide use, prioritise nature-based farming methods and urgently reduce water, light and noise pollution to save plummeting insect populations, according to a new “roadmap to insect recovery” compiled by experts.

The call to action by more than 70 scientists from across the planet advocates immediate action on human stress factors to insects which include habitat loss and fragmentation, the climate crisis, pollution, over-harvesting and invasive species.   ---  The Guardian

Jackal Flies With the Doves

“…It is a deep waterhole so the doves were sitting inside and this provided a unique opportunity for the black-backed jackal. He was able to sneak up behind the hole, almost to the edge, without the doves spotting him. He would then wind up like a spring and then literally fly over the hole, catching any doves flying up. He was very successful and caught four doves that morning.” --- Michiel Duvenhage - Africa Geographic