My grandpa had a transistor. It was old and already on the way to becoming a piece of junk. This was in late 1980s and early 1990s when TV had already made an inroad into our lives in a big way. However, like a rare monster on the verge of extinction, this transistor tickled my interest. Soon, I would spend a lot of time fiddling with it.

It was then that I discovered BBC world service and VOA.
Soon I was a fervent listener.
I have since stopped listening to radio, but I remember there were many of those wonderful programmes as ‘Anything Goes’, ‘Jazzmatazz’ on BBC radio and country music on Fridays(if my memory serves me right) on VOA . I can still recall the lady presenter on VOA signing off with her signature phrase ‘…wishing you lots and lots of country sunshine…’

Toda radio has largely taken a back seat. BBC  has also grown in its other avatars. But  it remains as engaging as decades ago. I hope it remains a credible source of news and entertainment for years to come.

As for country music, I’ll remain indebted to VOA for initiating me into the melodious world of bluegrass and other sounds from Nashville.

We are at a crossroads and we stand in front of two paths. Once on these paths, there is no going back, there is no do-over. The choice will have been made, and those who follow us will have to live with the decision we make right now.
On one path, is a future where our species has emerged from its adolescence and begun to think globally instead of regionally. Where we care for the environment and each other without expecting any reward or payback. The other path, is the path we have been on for centuries. It is the path of carrying more about money and possessions than the future we are creating. It is the path of caring more about the new television season than the millions who starve across the planet. It is the path of selfishness and the path that leads down a long and dark road.

We stand at a crossroads for our species right now. We have the chance to make the right decision and move down the right path. We can choose to move towards a better future for us all, but we have to make the decision now. This choice will never come again and we are running out of time to make it.

Our world is changing. The mistakes of our forefathers has created a world that is warming and changing faster than we realize. We are paying for the mistakes made by those who came before us, but rather than be the change we want to see in the world, we choose instead to make the same mistakes, resulting in our children and grandchildren paying the ultimate price.

The mistakes made before us have been so severe that no matter what we do right now, we will see a warming world. The oceans will continue to change for hundreds, if not thousands of years, because of us and those before us. We will see the Earth warm by one degree and we cannot stop it. We will lose the polar bear, the koala and countless other species that make our world an abundance of life and beauty. Hundreds of millions will lose freshwater and tiny island nations will slowly disappear under the sea. Those nations that will be hurt the most are the ones who did the least to cause this changing world. In the developed world, we can pay to ease the change in our lives, but others are not so lucky.

The Copenhagen Climate Conference is approaching and we hear the same old cries of hurting economies to protect the environment. Our own Prime Minister chose not to go until Obama decided to attend. We argue over whether or not economies will be hurt by changing the way we work to combat climate change, without realizing that the environment and the climate is our economy. The more we change it, the more our economy will suffer. We talk of lowering emissions by 30 percent in the next 40 years, why? Why does it take so long to make a change? When World War Two broke out, there was no talk about how to defeat the Nazis, it was a simple question of working together to combat a global threat. Detroit was told to make tanks, not cars. We were told to ration our reserves to help the war effort. The world worked together to stop a threat, and they did. Where is that same fight? Where is that same drive to say “The environment needs our help, and we are going to help it.!”
This conference and 2010 are our chance to do something and change the world. It is a time to fix things so that our ancestors can look back on us and say that we did meet the threat and we defeated it. We can be the Greatest Generation, the Environmental Generation, but we have to make the effort.

We buy Hummers and trucks because we having a status symbol. We own houses too large for us, that cost too much to heat, because we want people to see what we have.
This doesn’t matter. None of this does. It will not matter how big your house is when you cannot afford to heat it because gas prices are out of control. Who cares whether or not you have three bathrooms if you cannot even get freshwater in your home. One degree of warming means 30 percent less freshwater for all of us. That change is already happening, we can’t stop it and we can barely stop two degrees of warming.

There are those out there who deny climate change. We content themselves to driving Hummers, leaving their lights on and caring more about how others see them now than how their descendants will see them 100 years from now. They call us hippies and environmentalist whackos. They listen to the naysayers who say the economy will suffer without the oil and the fossil fuels, or the infrastructure that is there to make the car companies money, rather than help the environment.
Whether you believe global warming is happening or not, the Earth is changing and we have to do something about it. The risks are too great to ignore this any longer.

We look at our own ancestors and criticize them for slavery, for the way they treated others, for the destruction of other civilizations and we say it is wrong. Yet we do not turn that own looking glass on ourselves. We do not question how our future children will see us. Global warming is not a threat to us we think, but it is and it is a threat to our children. Our children will judge us, our descendants will look at us as the generation who had the chance to lead the fight and battle on the front lines against a future of misery and if we do not make the right choice, we will be judged poorly. We will be seen as the generation who chose a life of ease and luxury at the expense of the future. We will be vilified and criticized for our inaction.

We are the change and we are the future. Save the environment, save the world. We can make policy and we make change. We allow others, who have no care for the future of our planet to make the decisions and we distract ourselves with other worries that do not matter. We can change the world because there is no larger voice than all of us speaking together.

The Copenhagen Conference is the beginning, the change and the choice can be made there. We are running out of time.

Which path will you choose? Which path do you want the world to choose? The choice needs to be made now and we all have to go down that right path. Even if it means bringing some kicking and screaming, we have to make the right choice.

What will the economy matter when we have laid waste to the only home we have?
To end this note, I think it is important to borrow from one of the wisest men who ever lived, Carl Sagan, and his explanation of the Earth as a dot floating in a sun beam.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Our home, a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam

Your thoughts? E-mail me at crwbaird@gmail.com Feel free to forward this to others.

Today was supposed to be the day of getting my Sand Lizard Ext Inked tattoo, as the first step towards saving the species from extinction.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances such as losing my purse/ cards yesterday, plus not managing to get an appointment sorted for today – the  new time is now Sunday 30th November at 1pm. So hope you’ll be thinking of me.

You can join the Ext Inked group to track progress on Facebook.

What do Vegetarians think would happen to cows,pigs,and chickens if everybody became a Vegetarian? Do you really believe that farmers and ranchers would raise these animals if there was no market for them?

ONE INDIA

Ornithologists and forest officers in Punjab have expressed concern over the dwindling population of some popular birds, including the very common house sparrows. Disappearance of the common house sparrow from the urban areas is not something new.

A few years ago, alarm bells rang when the population count of the house sparrows decreased in London. It decreased by a total of 85 per cent.

Tejdeep Kaur, a Zoologist at Punjab Agricultural University traces one of the reasons to habitat loss. We are loosing its nesting sites as there is a loss of shrub vegetation. The overuse of pesticides in agriculture, decline in the reproductive efficiency because of the egg sheath infection are also the contributing factors.

The anti-knocking agents present in petrol decreases the population of insects which is the main food for them during their breeding period.

Though the house sparrow is facing extinction, none of authorities have taken any concrete steps to save them. No serious actions have been taken on this issue.

Before any action is taken a lot of study and research is being carried out regarding the issue. Statistics like how many sparrows are left and the reason behind extinction is yet to be formulated.

In yesteryears, the sparrows lived near human settlements and build its nests below tiled roofs. With the contemporary architecture making a clean sweep in cities, tiled roofs became a thing of the past, and sparrows lost prospective nesting spots.

Reef fish food web, Greater Antilles

Here are a couple of renderings of the vertebrate-only component of the coral reef food web. Reminder: the food web is what we expect to see for a reef in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, based on data collected around the mid-20th century. The vertebrate component comprises all fish and sea turtle species. The upper figure is the expected food web, and includes 196 species and 995 trophic interactions. Species are arranged on the periphery of the diagram, with interaction represented by the lines crossing the interior. The very busy, or hub species are higher trophic level predators, mostly carcharhinid sharks.

Jamaica coral reef fish food web

Mammoth skelton located in the Southeast Bavarian Natural History and Mammoth Museum. Image credit: Lou.gruber/Wikipedia

A new study by University of Wisconsin – Madison researchers sheds new light on why large North American mammals, like the Mammoth, became extinct.  Published in Science, this study focuses on fossil pollen, charcoal and fungus spores found in fossil dung.  The study illustrates that the decline of these large mammals started about 14,800 years ago.  This decline was essentially complete a thousand years later.  This study seems to rule out a mass extinction caused by a meteor strike about 12,900 years ago since the decline was well underway by then.  Other previously theories suggested that Clovis hunters created the extinction via over-hunting, but, again, the die off predates the arrival of Clovis hunters in North America.  Finally, this study contradicts the theory that significant changes in climate caused the extinction because it suggests that the extinction of these major species actually helped create the change in climate.  By losing these major plant-eaters, trees were able to become widespread.

UK Ministers were delighted at the recent news that the UK has achieved 10% growth in one year.

“We have always talked about the importance of growth for our country. Growth is the ultimate good and must override all other concerns” said government spokesman Donald Harebrain. Opposition spokesman Theobald Quixotic responded by saying “it was our idea first and we thought of it 20 years ago and what is more, it is a new idea that we just invented last week”.

They were of course referring to the fact that in just one year the UK managed growth of more than 10% in the number of endangered species within its borders.

Harebrain continued…“We have completely outstripped our rivals and have shown the world again what British ingenuity means. Look at the statistics. Bermuda achieved no growth whatsoever whereas Brunei and Eritrea actually show negative growth.”

Harebrain also expressed his glee that this had all been achieved without letting in any foreign asylum seeking endangered species.

SCUBA diving community united in search for threatened coral

Not waiting for the National Marine Fisheries Service to make their determination on the Reef Rescue petition to designate most of Palm Beach County as critical habitat for ESA listed coral, the local dive community embarks on a search for more staghorn coral colonies.

The struggle to gain federal habitat protection for the reefs offshore of the Town of Palm Beach is chronicled below in previous Reef Rescue blogs. The Florida Reef Tract along the east coast, south of the Boynton Beach Inlet is now designated critical habitat essential for the survival of ESA listed elkhorn and staghorn corals. Reef Rescue has petitioned the federal government to afford the same protections to the coral reefs offshore of the Town of Palm Beach.

In Palm Beach, they say the rules should be different

Federal habitat protection along the east coast of Florida extends from a depth of 6 out to 98 feet deep. All reef stuctures capable of supporting elkhorn and staghorn coral within the designated area are protected.  Unable to deny the existence of the largest stand of staghorn coral in Palm Beach County, recently discovered offshore of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the Town of Palm Beach backed down on their opposition to habitat protection for some – not all of the neighboring reefs.

The catch – off the Town of Palm Beach they say nothing in less than 45 feet of water should be protected.  Why?  Not much has changed – the reefs interfere with the town’s beach renourishment projects – or so they claim.

The dive community’s search for new staghorn locations is designed to negate Palm Beach’s opposition. Since, once staghorn is found in less than 45 feet of water or anywhere north of Breakers (deep) Reef another of the town’s contrived excuses unravels.

Check with your dive operator for details, some are offering rewards.  All staghorn sightings must be reported to Reef Rescue and verified.

ABC AUSTRALIA

Concerns have been raised about a dramatic decrease in endangered bird numbers in Tasmania.

Experts say drought, wildfires and the spread of urban development have contributed to the decline in numbers of the 40-spotted pardelote and the swift parrot.

Conservationist, Sally Bryant, says pardelote, or 40-spot, numbers in the state have dropped significantly over the last decade.

“In areas like Dennes Hill on Bruny Island, where I can remember going down and being flooded by the sound of 40-spots, it’s now very quiet, even though the bird is far more easily identifiable there than in some of the small colonies.

“My first reaction and certainly what the statistics are showing is that the numbers are very low,” Ms Bryant said.

Conservationists want the Tasmanian Government to save the habitats of endangered bird species on Bruny Island.

Peter McGlone from the Conservation Trust says logging of the parrot’s habitat should be stopped now, instead of waiting for the completion of industry codes of practice, which are being drafted.

“We know that an area on Bruny Island has been logged just in recent months that has swift parrot habitat in it,” he said.

“There are other areas in the south of the state that may well be being logged right now, and [the Primary Industries Minister] David Llewellyn needs to be proactive and make sure those logging operaitons stop.”

Forestry Tasmania has rejected claims it is rushing to log endangered species habitats before the new guidelines come into force.

The Forest Practices Authority has been working with major logging companies, including Forestry Tasmania, to draft guidelines to protect important wildlife habitats.

Forestry Tasmania’s Hans Drielsma denies his company is rushing to cut down trees before the draft is approved.

“There’s absolutely no basis to any suggestions like that,” said Dr Drielsma.

He says harvesting has been stopped in areas where birds are breeding.

I read Matt’s post about the danger of trash to animals and I am definitely looking forward to the discussion we will have in his class on Tuesday. But before that, I will present some initial thoughts regarding Matt’s main topic of discussion, “If we believe in evolution, survival of the fittest, and that extinction is a natural part of life, then why do we feel the need to ‘save’ endangered species.” Firstly, I think there is a dichotomy between those who think that extinction is natural and those who feel the need to save endangered species. Therefore, “we” should be better specified. So from now on, I shall use “we” for those who want to save endangered animals.

Some might consider the people who want to save endangered animals as “good” and people who will not step into action due to the belief in the naturalness of extinction as “bad”. But I shall state otherwise. Those who want to save the animals are the ones who want to transcend nature. Similar to the popular idea of cheating death, these people hope of cheating nature’s principles of evolution and extinction. I found a TV show on Animal Planet called Orangutan Island, in which people are trying to save the endangered Orangutans by protecting them and giving them homes. The title of Season 2’s Episode 1 is “Cheating Extinction,” which pertains quite well to our discussion. The regular viewer would think that the Orangutans are cheating extinction, but actually we are the ones cheating extinction. Not our extinction, but the Orangutan’s extinction. So now, we play a key role in the fate of other animals. Quite a weighty responsibility, isn’t it? Of course. Attempting to invalidate nature’s inherent laws by replacing it with human power is no small deal.

FORTY years ago conservationists feared that humpback whales were being hunted to extinction.

Now numbers have returned to such a level that they have been taken off the danger list.

The latest count stands at 40,000 mature individuals, meaning that, for now at least, the humpback is safe from the threat of extinction.

Several other whales, such as the blue whale, the biggest animal on earth, and the sei and southern right whales, are also growing in number after similar scares.

The populations of several smaller species of whales and other cetaceans are still falling, however, and it is feared that some may be close to disappearing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The vaquita, Phocoena sinus, a porpoise found in the Gulf of California, Mexico, is now thought to be down to the last 150 individuals and has been named by the union as the cetacean mostly likely to become extinct next.

The amount of wild animals caught or eaten each year is close to or possibly even exceeding the species’ maximum yield levels. One day, they’ll be driven to extinction due to human intervention. The extinction of these animals will cause us losing our rich biological system forever. Read more here.

Our world is in trouble in a lot of ways and anyone, whether an individual or a government, who denies this is practicing the head in the sand technique. Overfishing has caused the closing of fisheries in numerous countries, caribou herds are threatened, whales are on the endangered list , rhinos and tigers and other large land mammals are in danger of extinction. The list of endangered or near extinct fauna is extensive. Not all are hunted by humans for food or trophyism but the ones that are hunted/farmed/fished for food run into more conflict.

There are the people who make their livelihoods/their jobs from hunting a particular land or marine animal. When they are told they can’t do this anymore they are rightfully upset, scared of a future that is uncertain at best. Then there are native peoples of the lands, whether they’re Native Americans/First Nations, Danes, Laplanders, or Fiji Islanders (to name a few), they all have centuries of traditions and customs.

In many pre-industrial societies, food was a focus of stability. Towns and cities were often built on fertile land near water sources. Herds of animals were domesticated or hunted near villages. Customs, rituals and spiritual rites took place around food and the creatures that sustained the life of a people. These were so ingrained that you cannot separate an animal from the ritual. Initiatory rites as well as rituals for sustenance and good hunting were common.

But time is time, and everything changes through time. The land shifts, erodes and buckles. Species ebb and flow with the changing seasons and shift in climates, and from natural disasters. Although a species can hunt another to extinction, especially if it’s transplanted from its natural habitat, it’s not common. Only homo sapiens have been so resilient, adaptive and creative to live anywhere and hunt what they need. In most ecosystems if the predator overhunts the prey, the predators flourish but then there is not enough prey and the predators die back, maintaining a natural balance.

Only the human species has been able to circumvent this natural balance, bringing technology to bear on the environment to the point of detriment for every living thing including people. And so we have species all over the world that are endangered, protected or becoming extinct and yes, there are many species becoming memories only. Then we have traditional cultures saying, “We have always done this. It’s part of our traditions. It’s you people who disturbed the balance, not us.”

Governments are trying to protect dwindling resources so there will be something to hunt in the future and have placed restrictions and moratoria on different species. Sometimes only a certain quota is allowed to be taken and then there is more conflict. As in the missing salmon this year on the Pacific coast. There was nothing to fish. If anyone, Native or other fisherman wanted to take the fish because it was their right, if would diminish a chance for that species to survive. And now we have Innu hunters shooting caribou in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The thing is, it is their right to do so and have some protection based on ancestral tradition. That’s fine, but conservation officials say that a particular type of caribou, the Red Wine, have moved in amongst the other more prolific herd. There is supposed to be less than 100 of the Red Wine caribou left and they’re protected. The interesting thing is that five years ago Grand Chief Penashue  said about hunters in the protected preserver, “The hunt in the Red Wine caribou range was not just an illegal protest, it was completely inconsistent with Innu values. … Putting a threatened caribou herd at further risk can never be justified on the basis of aboriginal rights.”

Yet today this same chief is supporting the hunting of the caribou because statistically fewer would be hit compared to the George River herd. Seems those ancestral Innu values have changed. So it’s only good to assert traditional rights when it suits you and because the ministry or the government aren’t working with you, it’s now all right to hunt endangered species?

What is not right is asserting traditional and cultural rights over species that are endangered. To do so is pure stupidity because there will be nothing to fight over or use in traditional ways in a very near future. This is the biggest problem when various cultures try to assert their rights because it’s always been done this way. And where do we draw the timeline if someone says, we’ve done it this way for a hundred years, a thousand years, or whatever. Just because one’s ancestors did it doesn’t mean we can continue to do it, whatever it may be. The world has changed and denying that does no good.

I support the right of people to keep their traditions (that’s all those unique cultures all over the world) but not at the expense of losing endangered species or in subjugating other people. Our ancestors did all sorts of things, including using outhouses, killing and beating people and eating foods we wouldn’t touch. They lived without central heating, they sewed everything by hand and only the richest (or the military) might have gone more than a hundred miles from their local village. Life was constant hard work. We cannot always say, because my people once did it I have the right to do it now. We have to be reasonable and holding a species as hostage to get your way is the same as saying well you won’t listen to me so I’ll just beat this kid until I get my way. They’re both innocent (caribou or child) and some healthy reasoning should come in to play as opposed to punishing/speeding the extinction of the species. In this case the Innu should be ashamed of themselves because even killing one more of an endangered herd lessens its chance for viability and recovery.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/labrador-innu-break-hunting-ban-kill-64-caribou/article1370834/

DAN BACHER – INDYBAY

As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was shamelessly greenwashing his way across Europe and the Middle East to meet with political leaders about “fighting climate change” and “creating green jobs,” a coalition of environmental groups sent a notice of intent to sue over the Schwarzenegger’s administration’s failure to protect imperiled salmon and steelhead in two North Coast rivers.

Two press releases issued by the Governor’s Office today were typical of those continually spit out by his P.R. machine. The first stated, “Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today joined Roberto Formigoni, the president of Lombardy Region, Italy, to urge regional and local leaders to take action to fight climate change and help create green jobs while highlighting the World Regions Forum to be held in Milan, Italy from November 19 through November 21.”

In the second, Schwarzenegger issued a self-congratulatory statement applauding the California Energy Commission’s unanimous vote to adopt “first-in-the-nation” energy efficiency standards for televisions:

“It is the real, achievable policies like the first-in-the-nation standards adopted by the Energy Commission today that have made California a world leader in the fight against climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” he gloated. “Not only has our commitment to energy efficiency standards like these created billions in savings for consumers, it has allowed California’s per capita electricity consumption to remain flat over the last 30 years while national energy consumption has steadily increased. I applaud the commission for its hard work to enact these and other cost-effective energy efficiency standards that are not only great for the environment, but also good for consumers.”

As Schwarzenegger was promoting his “green energy” scams and playing the role of the “Green Governor,” a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, Northern California River Watch, and Coast Action Group addressed the reality, rather than the fantasy of the “Green Governor,” who is worshipped by the corporate media and some corporate “environmental” groups. The three organizations announced their intent to sue California’s State Water Resources Control Board for authorizing water diversions that harm federally protected salmon and steelhead trout in the Russian River and Gualala River watersheds.

“The water board is violating the Endangered Species Act by permitting water diversions in Mendocino and Sonoma counties, primarily for vineyards, that adversely affect salmon,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Miller said diversions and pumping from streams for grape growing dewater rivers and creeks where listed fish species spawn, harming imperiled coho salmon, chinook salmon, and steelhead trout. Dewatering of streams occurs not only during spring and summer vineyard irrigation, but also due to winter “frost protection” pumping to protect budding grapes from frost. When freezing temperatures hit the North Coast, vineyards pumping water for frost protection can dry up the Russian River and its tributaries, stranding and killing young salmon.

“Twelve years after the state water board determined that pumping for frost protection is harmful to salmon and concluded it to be a waste and unreasonable use of water, the board has still failed to take appropriate action on frost irrigation,” said Miller. “Further fish kills are unacceptable — coho salmon are near extinction in the Russian River, and chinook salmon and steelhead are not far behind.”

In the spring of both 2008 and 2009, Miller said there were fish kills due to excessive water diversions in the main stem of the Russian River at Hopland and in Felta Creek, a tributary of the Russian River. There are at least 60,000 acres of vineyards in the Russian River watershed, 70 percent of which are within 300 feet of salmon streams. The Wheatfield Fork of the Gualala River is also experiencing dramatic changes from overpumping, and fish habitat and survival are being significantly harmed.

“River Watch is hopeful that this notice will protect the last of the species and ultimately allow the restoration of fish runs,” said River Watch member Larry Hanson.

The State Water Resources Control Board permits and authorizes harmful water pumping, diversions, and water storage and continues to issue water appropriation permits in the over-allocated Russian River and Gualala River watersheds, in conflict with public trust values and beneficial uses, according to Miller.

In 1997, the water board released a report identifying vineyard practices, particularly frost protection activities, that adversely impact federally listed species of fish struggling to survive in the Russian River basin and its tributaries. The National Marine Fisheries Service requested in the spring of 2009 that the water board pass regulations to protect listed fish species, but the board has continued to allow frost-protection withdrawals and unreasonable and excessive water use to continue in these watersheds.

“The water board is violating the Endangered Species Act by consenting to improper use and by failing to enforce existing regulations,” emphasized Miller. “The region’s significant fisheries are near extinction: coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) on the central California coast are listed as endangered by both the state and federal governments; chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) along the California coast are federally listed as threatened; and steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) on the central California coast and northern California are federally listed as threatened.”

“Central California coast coho salmon are now at only 1 to 2 percent of their historical abundance. Coho have been eliminated from more than half of their historical streams in California, and in recent years, only 500 to 1,000 wild coho have returned to the entire central coast region to spawn. California coast chinook salmon have declined 97 to 99 percent from historical runs. Northern California coast steelhead have declined by 90 percent and central California coast steelhead have declined by 80 to 90 percent in the past 50 years,” Miller added.

Miller noted that salmon and steelhead spawn in freshwater streams and young fish require habitat with sufficient flows; deep pools; adequate food and shelter; and clean, cold water in order to survive long enough to migrate to the sea. The huge amounts of water withdrawn for grape growing dries up spawning beds and kills fish or leaves young salmon and steelhead stranded in hot and crowded shallow pools, where they are exposed to overcrowding and predators.

While Schwarzenegger flies around the globe to portray his false image as the “Green Governor” and issues a constant barrage of “green energy” press releases, he has not only presided over the decline of Russian River and Navarro River salmon and steelhead runs, but has relentlessly attacked the state and federal Endangered Species Acts. He recently pressured the federal government to do an “independent” review of a court-ordered federal biological opinion protecting Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales.

He has helped to engineer the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales by presiding over the largest increases in water exports from the California Delta history. And he has done nothing to prevent pollution of our bay, Delta, river, lake and ocean waters by unregulated discharges of agricultural waste water.

His two “solutions” to California’s fishery declines, rather than addressing the roots of the problem by curbing water exports, reducing water pollution and stopping the rampant destruction of fishery habitat, are to build a peripheral canal and to kick sustainable seaweed harvesters, fishermen and Indian Tribes off the water by promoting the corrupt, fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process overseen by oil industry, real estate and marina development interests.

There is absolutely nothing “green” or “environmental” about Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “Fish Terminator,” as he pursues his relentless war on California’s fish populations. The former “Austrian Oak” makes former Governor Gray Davis look like John Muir and Pete Wilson look like Julia Butterfly in comparison.

This is the first in a series of essays on the nature of manhood.

Because we live in a gender-confused age (in which only women can safely be masculine), I think it is important to get a good grasp on what manhood truly is.  In so doing, we will have to climb a staircase of steps which clearly illustrate the essence of  manhood – chiefly, by contrasting manhood with the many things is isn’t.   And the first thing that we should recognize is that man is distinct from nature.

Of course, this idea cuts straight across the grain of our modern pseudo-scientific mentality.  If you’re like me, you probably had it drummed into your head as you were growing up that man is nothing special – just another animal, and only one more species in the list of millions of species.  We are constantly told that we should not bust our buttons thinking too well of ourselves, as though we were some great creation or something.   ‘Just another animal’, we are reminded, again and again.

Not Human

Take this little bit of yellow journalism as an example:

For one thing, we’re animals too, dependent on this planet like every other form of life.

AFP

PARIS — Due to an 83-year-old error of classification, a species of European skate could become the first marine fish driven to extinction by commercial fishing, according to a study released on Wednesday.

In the 19th century, scientists identified two separate species of the once-widespread European skate, the flapper skate (Dipturus intermedia) and the blue skate (Dipturus flossada).

But an influential study in 1926 argued the two species were in fact one, which prompted a new name, Dipturus batis.

Since then, trawling has massively depleted all types of European skate stocks, with France accounting for more than 60 percent of landings.

New research, led by Samuel Inglesias of France’s Museum of Natural History and using molecular analysis of DNA, proves once and for all that the initial classification was correct.

As a result of the overfishing, the flapper skate is on the fast track to being wiped out, the paper says.

“[Without] immediate and incisive action, the species may be in an irreversible decline towards extinction,” Inglesias said in a statement.

The blue skate is in sharp decline but is still a viable species, the study says.

Iglesias said the discovery highlights the need “for a huge reassessment of population for the different Dipturus species in European waters.”

The study was published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.