Valparai, Tamil Nadu
Bird of the Day: Speckled Piculet
Valparai, Tamil Nadu
False Equivalence, Exhibit A?
We are concerned about false equivalence journalism, especially on environmental topics, so we have read this story twice before highlighting it. The human interest attraction is meant to be heightened by including the law enforcement perspective.
One of the most respected journalists of our time, however, seems to have committed the error right on the heels of an obviously awkward parallel story that serves as a perfect cautionary tale for false equivalence. We still recommend reading it, so you can decide for yourself:
The View From Two Sides of the Standing Rock Front Lines
Fish, Nutrition & Progress
Americans are often chastised for what we eat. Now we’re getting a pat on the back. A new report finds seafood consumption is up by nearly a pound from the previous year, the biggest leap in 20 years. fcafotodigital/Getty Images
Thank to the salt, at National Public Radio (USA) for this news:
Hey, Looks Like Americans Are Finally Eating More Fish
CLARE LESCHIN-HOAR
…According to the annual Fisheries of the United States Report released by NOAA last week, Americans increased their seafood consumption to 15.5 pounds of fish and shellfish per person in 2015, up nearly a pound from the previous year, making it the biggest leap in seafood consumption in 20 years.
“It’s terrific news,” says Tom Brenna, professor of human nutrition at Cornell University and a member of the 2015 Dietary Guideline Committee. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
It’s a rare nutritional pat-on-the-back for Americans, who routinely get chastised over their diets, but the good news comes with some caveats. Continue reading
Northeastern USA Will Remain Greener, Longer, Thanks To New Protection In Maine’s Backwoods
Thank you Maine and thank you federal government of the USA:
Touring Maine’s Newest — and Largest — Parcel of Federal Land
By
On an early fall day, with just a hint of red tinting the maples, the view from the summit of Deasey Mountain is spectacular.
To the west stand the rugged, treeless basins and knife-edge spine of Mount Katahdin. Off to the south, you see Wassataquoik Valley in the near distance, the peaks of the 100 Mile Wilderness beyond. To the east and north, more wild Maine woods and hills rolling for miles, to the Canadian border. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Short-eared Owl
Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat
Changing Values For Anglers
Humpback chub. Photo © George Andrejko, Arizona Game and Fish Department
We appreciate the perspective Mr. Williams brings to the story:
Recovery: Humpback Chubs, New Values and New Hope for Endangered Native Fish
BY TED WILLIAMS
There are “undesirable fish,” “rough fish,” and “trash fish.” Humpback chubs, native to the turbulent, turbid water of the Colorado River system, are all three. They compete with nonnative gamefish like brown trout from Europe and rainbow trout for the Pacific Northwest. If you catch a humpback chub, you should squeeze it and toss it into the bushesSuch was the counsel I and my fellow anglers received from our elders and the fisheries management establishment until the 1970s. Continue reading
Dakota Access & Fairness
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Sioux nation, leads his people to peacefully pray near a law enforcement barricade just outside of a Dakota Access pipeline construction site. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters
It looks hypocritical from our vantage point:
Dakota Access pipeline protesters see bias after Oregon militia verdict
Activists at the Malheur wildlife refuge were carrying guns – but ‘if native people were armed, we would be killed,’ says an activist at Standing Rock
Sam Levin in Cannon Ball, North Dakota
Johanna Holy Elk Face couldn’t help but chuckle. The 63-year-old Native American was one of hundreds of activists gathered to block construction of the Dakota Access pipeline on Thursday, when police with tanks and riot gear surrounded them and began making mass arrests. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Fiery-billed Araçari
Tacacori, Costa Rica
Chan Chich Lodge, According To Fodor’s
A guest recently left a copy of this guidebook and I just picked it up. After my puma sitings yesterday and today, I am not surprised to read what one of the most respected travel guides has to say about Chan Chich Lodge:
Arguably the best lodge in Belize and one of the top lodges in all of Central America, Chan Chich is set in a remote, beautiful area … with 12 rustic yet comfortable cabañas. Just outside your door you’re likely to encounter legions of tropical birds and wild animals, even jaguars Continue reading
National Park of the Week: Isalo National Park, Madagascar
Photo via jenmansafaris.com
With its multitude of intersecting rivers within deep canyons, yellow savannah grasses carpeting the bottoms of vertical gorges, and domineering sculpted buttes, Isalo National Park is an artist’s canvas of a desert canyon. Jocularly called “Madagascar’s Colorado,” Isalo was founded in 1962 and is located in the southern highlands of the island. The park covers an area of 800 sq km and offers prime hiking opportunities among natural pools and uniquely carved landscapes. Continue reading
Puma, Chan Chich Lodge, & Me (Or You)
Trekking in a protected area, my hopes and expectations balance each other to create a happy medium: if I can see evidence of the ecosystem’s health, and can believe that it supports the entire food chain, I get that biophilia sensation. I do not need to see the top of the food chain, which frequently is a big cat (tigers and leopards in India, jaguars and pumas in Latin America, lions and cheetahs throughout Africa) as much as I would want to. Or as much as I am elated, on days like today and yesterday, when I do see a healthy mature cat. Continue reading
Bolivia & Chinese Oil Exploration
Thanks as always to the Guardian for its coverage of important environmental issues:
Fears for isolated Bolivian tribe met by Chinese oil firm in Amazon
Company operating near the border with Peru has reportedly had near encounters with indigenous people living in “isolation
David Hill
Teams from a Chinese oil and gas company exploring in the remote Bolivian Amazon have reportedly had near encounters with a group of indigenous people living in what the United Nations calls “isolation”, raising major concern for the group’s welfare. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Black-faced Grosbeak
Gallon Jug Estate, Belize
Perfectly Good Imperfect Food
A customer shopped at Fruta Feia, a Portuguese cooperative created to sell imperfect food. The food industry has begun looking for ways to reduce waste. Bargain-hunting consumers seem to be going for the deals.CreditPatricia De Melo Moreira for The New York Times
Increasing attention to the inherent waste in judgements about imperfection is a welcome topic in our pages:
Food Industry Goes Beyond Looks to Fight Waste
World’s Largest Marine Reserve, Another Accomplishment Of 2016
Boats sit on the beach at Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica. An agreement was reached on Friday to create the world’s largest marine protected area in the ocean next to the frozen continent. Natacha Pisarenko/AP
In an otherwise dismal year for the environment, we have tried to keep track of the few actions taken that are noteworthy for their scale and ambition. This week, and this month, are ending on a high note in that regard:
Nations Agree To Establish World’s Largest Marine Reserve In Antarctica
MERRIT KENNEDY
After years of negotiations, nations have reached an agreement to establish the world’s largest marine sanctuary in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.
Twenty-four countries and the European Union reached the unanimous deal at an international meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart, Australia on Friday. Continue reading
Dakota, Keystone & Resistance
Dakota Access Pipeline protesters facing police officers in North Dakota this month. Credit Terray Sylvester/Reuters
As usual, Mr. McKibben is on the correct side of the debate and urges the rest of us to join that side and resist in solidarity:
Why Dakota Is the New Keystone
By
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — The Native Americans who have spent the last months in peaceful protest against an oil pipeline along the banks of the Missouri are standing up for tribal rights. They’re also standing up for clean water, environmental justice and a working climate. And it’s time that everyone else joined in.
The shocking images of the National Guard destroying tepees and sweat lodges and arresting elders this week remind us that the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline is part of the longest-running drama in American history — the United States Army versus Native Americans. In the past, it’s almost always ended horribly, and nothing we can do now will erase a history of massacres, stolen land and broken treaties. But this time, it can end differently. Continue reading
Divest, Nobel
Thanks to 350.org for this one, via EcoWatch:
Nobel Prize, It’s Time to Divest From Fossil Fuels
350.org
Last Tuesday, Fossil Free Sweden finally received confirmation from the Nobel Foundation that it does not intend to adopt rigid sustainable investment guidelines which entirely exclude investments in the least sustainable companies on the planet—those driving climate change through the exploitation of fossil fuels.. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Dark-eyed Junco
Dunwoody, Georgia, USA
Tree Elders & Drought
Giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada range can grow to be 250 feet tall — or more. John Buie/Flickr
Thanks to National Public Radio (USA):
How Is A 1,600-Year-Old Tree Weathering California’s Drought?
It’s been a brutal forest fire season in California. But there’s actually a greater threat to California’s trees — the state’s record-setting drought. The lack of water has killed at least 60 million trees in the past four years.
Scientists are struggling to understand which trees are most vulnerable to drought and how to keep the survivors alive. To that end, they’re sending human climbers and flying drones into the treetops, in a novel biological experiment. Continue reading
Late October’s Flame Red Trees
Treetops near Song Mountain in Tully, N.Y., last week.CreditLauren Long/The Syracuse Newspapers, via Associated Press
We do not need to understand it to appreciate the beauty, but the science behind it is another wonder of its own:
Why Does Fall Foliage Turn So Red and Fiery? It Depends.
By
Leaves scream their final cries in color before dropping to the ground. Their shouts — in golden, crimson or scarlet — eventually fade to brown bellows, and their lifeless bodies dry up on the forest floor. It absorbs their crinkly corpses and that’s it — worm food. The fall of a leaf in autumn is an orchestrated death. A complex, brilliant, beautiful death.
Right now across the United States, fall foliage season is peaking, and everyone’s out to get a peep at the fiery show. Hiking trails are crowded. Mountain roads are packed, and leaf cams are getting lots of love. When you think of it as watching the death of leaves, it sounds morbid, but it’s captivating nonetheless. Does the way some turn red in the process serve any purpose? Continue reading
Organikos 