The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors will consider opposing a potential ban on black bear hunting in California.
The Humane Society of the United States wants the state to stop black bear hunting this year and potentially going forward over concerns about declining populations and the impacts of climate change, droughts and wildfires.
The animal protection group has petitioned the California Game and Fish Commission to ban black bear hunting while a more accurate population study is conducted.
“Mama Bear” is a popular slogan on sweatshirts and bumper stickers, because many mothers, like me, identify with the ferocity with which a “Mama Bear” will protect her cubs.
Management of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife cannot relate; it denigrates empathy for animals, or concern for their ethical treatment, as “emotional” and “unscientific.” To department management, our wildlife exists only to be “harvested,” whenever and however hunters choose.
This disregard for ethical mores explains the department’s recommendation that the Fish and Wildlife Commission reverse the decision it made last fall, and approve a permanent spring hunting season to allow hunters to target bears when they are weak, slow and easy to kill. Experts agree spring bear hunts inevitably kill nursing mothers and leave orphaned cubs to die, which is one reason they are supported…
This letter is addressed to the trapping community. My sweet little dog should be dead. A week ago a friend was skiing with her from a popular trailhead off the Denali Highway when she was caught in a Conibear trap. There were no signs or any indication that traps were in the area. Had not my friend been tenacious and creative — she used her boot laces to tie one side of the trap open while she used both hands to open the other side — my dog would not have survived. It is a miracle she did.
So I ask you, the trapping community, what does it take for you to care about your neighbors, your community and your fellow trail users? How many beloved pets have to die, how many hearts have to break, how much suffering are you willing to inflict before…
Faced with rising gasoline prices, many Americans are now looking to switch to an electric car. But the shift away from fossil fuel vehicles has been criticized by Senator Joe Manchin, who has said he is “very reluctant” to see the proliferation of battery-powered cars.
There has been a surge in interest in buying electric vehicles (EVs) in the wake of the war in Ukraine, analysts say, with drivers in the US unnerved by gasoline prices that have surpassed $4.30 a gallon as a result of the conflict and the supply chain issues from the pandemic.
Joe Biden has repeatedly championed the growth of the nascent EV market as a way to tackle the climate crisis, with America’s heavy dependency on polluting cars a major source of planet-heating emissions.
But Manchin, the centrist Democrat who holds a key swing vote in the US Senate, has poured scorn on the idea of phasing out gasoline and diesel cars.
“I’m very reluctant to go down the path of electric vehicles,” Manchin said at the energy conference CERAWeek, held in Houston. “I’m old enough to remember standing in line in 1974 trying to buy gas – I remember those days. I don’t want to have to be standing in line waiting for a battery for my vehicle, because we’re now dependent on a foreign supply chain, mostly China.”
Manchin, who has taken more money in political donations from fossil fuel interests than any other senator, also said he has “a hard time understanding” why the federal government would invest in a network of electric car charging stations, as the Biden administration aims to do.
“I’ve read history, and I remember Henry Ford inventing the Model-T, but I sure as hell don’t remember the US government building filling stations,” Manchin said to applause. “The market did that.”
The West Virginia senator’s criticism is ominous for the White House’s hopes of passing major climate legislation this year. The climate elements of the Build Back Better Act, which Manchin’s opposition has so far stalled, included half a trillion dollars in clean energy tax credits as well as major rebates for electric car purchases to drive up their adoption.
Manchin’s comments also come amid renewed consumer interest in EVs reported by car dealers as some Americans look to bypass the volatility of the global oil market altogether. The past month has seen a strong increase in the number of people searching online for hybrid and battery electric vehicles, according to Edmunds, a car shopping and industry analyst website.
This is a continuation of the broader growth of EVs in recent years “but the major surge in interest of late is certainly more of a reaction to record gas prices sparked by the war in Ukraine”, according to Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds.
“Anecdotally we are hearing a lot about a greater interest in EVs because of what is going on in Ukraine, but the real test is whether that will last,” said Ed Kim, president of AutoPacific, an auto industry research firm.
Tesla cars recharge their batteries at the Geary Boulevard Supercharger in San Francisco. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Kim said that gas-powered cars built in the US are already full of foreign-made parts. “Joe Manchin represents West Virginia which is dependent upon coal so I believe he has a vested interest in downplaying clean energy,” Kim said.
“Look at what’s happening right now, we are seeing fuel prices we haven’t seen in years because of geopolitical issues. Any measures we take to reduce our reliance on petroleum is good for our economy, our environment and to ensure the country doesn’t come screeching to a halt.”
Previous jumps in the price of gasoline, such as in 2008, saw a corresponding increase in sales of battery-powered and hybrid cars and analysts expect a similar spike as a result of the current crisis. Around half a million electric cars were sold in the US last year, up more than 80% on 2020, with consumers attracted to a slew of new models such Ford’s Mustang Mach-E and the Telsa Model Y.
While traditional car makers such as Ford and GM are now making significant investments in the EV market, demand is now regularly outstripping pandemic-hit supply, meaning the ballooning interest in going electric may end in frustration. “Unfortunately, making an EV purchase is not particularly easy to do right now amid inventory shortages,” said Caldwell.
Owning an electric car is far cheaper than a gas-powered one due to a lower cost of fuel and fewer mechanical problems but the up-front cost of most EVs is typically more than $40,000.
This means they are often out of reach for many low-income Americans who are already forced, due to the car-centric design of US cities and suburbia, to spend a large amount of their money on running a vehicle to go to work and complete other routine trips.
“Dependence on oil is funding some of the most brutal regimes in the world today. There’s nothing to suggest any component of an EV would resemble the current national security, environmental and humanitarian cost of oil.” said Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy.
“The transition to EVs is inevitable at this point – the timeline is up to consumers and policymakers. The events in Ukraine are a reminder how volatile and destructive a dependence on oil is and that should only accelerate this timeline.”
New satellite data has revealed the Arctic is melting at a “frightening rate” due to the excess heat caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.
End-of-season Arctic multiyear sea ice – the ice that persists over several years – was roughly 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) thinner in 2021 than it was in 2019, the figures show, a drop of around 16 percent in just three years. It’s being replaced by less permanent seasonal sea ice that melts completely every summer.
Over the past 18 years, Arctic Ocean winter sea ice has lost one-third of its volume – a staggering figure that may have been underestimated in the past, says the research.It’s the first study to use years of satellite data to estimate both ice thickness and the depth of snow on top.
“Arctic snow depth, sea ice thickness and volume are…
GENEVA (AP) — Nearly all the world’s countries kicked off a U.N.-backed meeting Monday aimed at preventing the loss of biodiversity — seen as critical to avoiding the extinction of many vulnerable species, the emergence of pathogens like the coronavirus, and the damage to both lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Indigenous peoples in particular.
The two-week meeting of over 190 countries on the Convention on Biological Diversity, after a two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be the last gathering of its kind before a major conference in the coming months in Kunming, China, that will try to adopt an international agreement on protecting biodiversity.
“We have this one goal, which is to bend the curve on biodiversity loss and really to build that shared future to live in harmony with nature in the long term,” the convention’s executive secretary, Elizabeth Maruma…
Since 2016, more than 50,000 structures in California have been destroyed by wildfire. During fire season in the West, when the sky is dim with smoke and the sun’s an eerie red, you might find yourself breathing in tiny carbonized particles of what used to be someone’s front-porch swing.
These fires are only going to get worse as the climate warms. Unless we want to keep risking lives and inhaling incinerated dreams, something has to change.
The California Department of Insurance last monthreleasednew regulations that require insurance companies to reward homeowners who take steps to protect their home from wildfire, such as clearing brush and trees from the immediate vicinity of their home or putting on a fire-resistant roof. The policy is being widely…
Live chickens are transported in crates on a semi trailer truck into the Pilgrim’s poultry processing plant in Enterprise, Alabama, U.S., November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer/File Photo
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March 14 (Reuters) – About 4 million commercially raised U.S. chickens and turkeys have been killed since February due to outbreaks of a highly lethal type of bird flu, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows. read more
Flocks are culled after the disease is detected to prevent it from spreading, and importing countries including Mexico, China and Korea have imposed state-specific import restrictions in response.Report ad
The bird flu outbreak is the worst since 2015, when nearly 50 million birds, mostly turkeys and egg-laying chickens in the U.S. Midwest, were killed. It comes at a time when food prices are skyrocketing due to labor shortages, supply-chain problems and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a key wheat and corn exporter. Widespread outbreaks of bird flu in poultry could reduce demand for crops used for feed.
Below are outbreaks in commercial flocks reported by the USDA:
IOWA: The USDA said on March 11 that a flock of 915,925 egg-laying chickens in Iowa, the top U.S. egg-producing state, was infected with highly pathogenic bird flu. read more A flock of 49,816 turkeys in the state was also culled after the disease was detected. Iowa was at the center of the biggest-ever U.S. outbreak of avian flu in 2015. read moreReport ad
MARYLAND: A flock of 150,000 broiler chickens, which are raised for meat, and a flock of 496,272 egg-laying chickens were culled after birds tested positive for avian flu.
SOUTH DAKOTA: A flock of 47,330 birds of mixed species was infected.
MISSOURI: The USDA has confirmed outbreaks in two turkey flocks and one broiler-chicken flock in Missouri, for a total of about 426,295 birds affected. read more
DELAWARE: Bird flu hit a commercial poultry farm with 1.1 million birds in February, significantly expanding the number of birds impacted in the United States. Another farm with 265,000 pullets, or young chickens, was infected in March. read more
KENTUCKY: A flock of about 231,398 chickens owned by Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) in Kentucky tested positive. read more Testing also confirmed highly lethal bird flu in a 53,286-bird commercial turkey flock. read more
INDIANA: Indiana had outbreaks on six turkey farms, with about 171,733 birds affected, the USDA said.
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Reporting by Tom Polansek, Christopher Walljasper and Caroline Stauffer in Chicago Editing by Matthew Lewis
A strong “heatwave” is developing in the Polar circle, with surface temperatures up to 30 degrees above the long-term average. Strong pressure systems are driving a large air mass transport event, bringing warmer than normal temperatures into the Polar regions.
Strong pressure systems in the sub-polar regions are creating a “wind tunnel” from the North Atlantic into the Polar Circle. Now, a strong movement of air is underway, creating unusual weather conditions both in and out of the Polar regions.
As you will also see, one of the factors that even allows such strong anomalies is also the Gulf Stream and the entire Atlantic Ocean circulation (AMOC).
SPRING BEGINS
Looking first at the global temperature anomalies for March so far, we can see a large area of warmer than normal temperatures over the western Polar regions. As the warmer air moves into…
EVANSVILLE, Ind.— As the population of the formerly endangered bald eagle has grown nationwide,a new threat to its survival is emerging.
Once threatened by agricultural pesticide use and hunting, bald eagles are now seeing an increase in deaths from lead poisoning.
“It’s one of the most ironic parts of the conservation movement,” said Laura Edmunds, clinical director at theIndiana Raptor Centerin Nashville. “The only reason it hasn’t had more attention until now is that there are more eagles now.”
The effects of lead toxicity might have stayed undetected if conservationists hadn’t been so successful at restoring eagles’ numbers, she said.
How do bald eagles get lead poisoning?
The source? Wildlife experts believe it’s lead ammunition used by hunters — bullet fragments and shotgun pellets left in wounded animals that then fall prey to or are scavenged by…
