Politics – Page 20 – See Animals Wild

March 15, 2021March 23, 2021

The Raegan administration removed the solar panels from the white house, why and what does it show?

President Carter installed 32 solar thermal panels on the white house 30 years ago. By 1986 Jimmy Carter had been replaced by Ronald Reagan – and unfortunately his priorities were different. He scrapped the research and development budget for renewables and eliminated any tax breaks that were encouraging deployment of solar or wind turbines.

Under Jimmy carter the white house had solar panels, why did Reagan remove them?

When the white house had to have its roof fixed, Reagan used this as an excuse to remove the solar panels, despite the fact that they were still working fine.

March 13, 2021July 1, 2022

The possibility of reintroducing Cheetah to India is once again being looked at

Rajasthan madlyya Pradesh and Gujarat are all looking at potential sites were cheetah could be reintroduced. Given the precarious state of the cheetah population in Iran (thought to only be 50-60 animals) the reintroductions would come from Africa.

March 11, 2021July 1, 2022

10 years to save the worlds wilderness?

1/3 of the worlds species are threatened with extinction. There are many suggestions that this is just a natural process, but in recent decades it is not. This is not happening because of natural mechanisms, it is happening because of human behaviour. Indeed, while many of these species are being pushed to extinction through loss of habitat, there are many others that are disappearing because of overexploitation by humans.

March 11, 2021July 1, 2022

A forest is replanted after minister is found to have illegally cleared it

This story is extremely encouraging. Around the world, large plantation companies often encourage small holders to clear the land and then buy it from them.

This area of deforested land was within a protected area, and should never have been cleared

The idea that this behaviour of getting other people to clear the land is permissible is insane. I personally would like countries to punish illegal clearance by always requiring full reforestation at the cost of the guilty party – this would likely end the scourge of illegal deforestation (then we must start working on so called legal deforestation)

March 9, 2021July 1, 2022

Jair Bolsonaro is having a similar impact on environmental laws in Brazil to the impact of Donald Trump in the USA – will the effect be longer lasting?

Just like Trump in the USA Jair Bolsonaro has taken an axe to the environmental protections that Brazil has created over decades. Also just like Donald Trump, the majority of these moves have been done by Executive act. Between march and may last year, Jair signed 195 infralegal acts – and just like under Trunp these acts are thought to be only just legal and should have gone through their governmental body.

More than 4000 square miles of rainforest was lost last year alone

March 7, 2021July 1, 2022

On pure numbers of fatalities (not to mention cost, simplicity and and health of our ecosystems), wolf reintroduction is a no-brainer

In the half a century running up to the year 2002, there are only 8 recorded fatalities from wolf attacks across the whole of Europe and western Russia. Also when thinking about this number we need to remember that the majority of these sorts of occurred in parts of the world where there are many wolves such as Western Russia.

Wolves are returning to territory that they have not been present in for decades or in places even centuries

March 1, 2021July 1, 2022

Foolish attacks on renewable energy – Texas blackouts cannot be blamed on green energy

With incredibly cold weather hitting Texas (for instance the beach is covered in snow), Fox News has been making a big thing of the fact that some of the wind turbines are not turning supposedly because they froze – and that this is the cause of the blackouts.

This is factually incorrect. According to data from the Texas government wind turbine shutdowns accounted for less than 13% of the total outage. A bigger problem is freezing of oil and gas equipment throughout the state.

February 14, 2021July 1, 2022

Anti vaxxers are not limited to the developed world

The current president of Tanzania is starting that the country has eradicated Covid-19 and is dismissing the need for vaccines.. Why am I writing about this in a wildlife blog? The way that governments react to science is a good indication of the way that they will react to the natural world within their borders.

February 18, 2018December 3, 2023

The Conservatives record on the environment

When David Cameron entered 10 Downing Street, he talked about it being the greenest government ever. While they have had to be in coalition for much of the period that the have been in power, it is clear that much of the negative effects on the environment has been pushed through by the conservatives not their partners.
Continue reading “The Conservatives record on the environment”

February 18, 2018December 3, 2023

Cape leopards

Cape Leopards are a fascinating part of the leopard population of South Africa. It is estimated that there are as many as 1000 cape leopards living throughout the western cape. Now the western cape covers roughly 50,000 square miles so it is a rather large area, and they are spread across a few national parks. What is interesting about this group is that they are significantly smaller than any other group of leopards with females weighing around 20kg and males 35kg (generally leopards weigh between 60 and 70kg). Continue reading “Cape leopards”