Wildlife and conservation new, wild travel information and links for booking
Biden has set an extremely ambition target of cutting US emissions by 50% in the next 8 years.
There is no doubt that this is required, if we look at the science this is around about what is required to keep 1.5 degrees of warming still within reach; but can it be done?
Continue reading “Biden has set a target for the USA to cut emissions by 50% – by 2030”Wolves were exterminated very effectively across much of North America. When so called native Americans arrived probably as much as 15000 years ago, they quickly learnt to live alongside wolves. Sure, occasionally one would be killed, but generally they were left alone. Not so for the European settlers; as they had done before in Europe, wolves were hunted mercilessly. So when we started to worry about conservation of these species in the last 50 or so years there were few left. Even in places like Yellowstone they were eradicated.
The money will be used to expand wildlife corridors, which will allow easier gene flow, as well as benefitting all wildlife in the area – including prey which in places is severely lacking.
Currently agreed requirements for the animal to be taken off the endangered list is 3 established populations of a couple of hundred each.
The changes would also benefit key deer, Florida manatee and loggerhead sea turtles.
It is rare that conservation efforts are supported on all side. In other areas Republicans have not been good at supporting Conservation in the last few years – let us hope that this will lead to a change in the wider Republican party.
Methane emissions are 80 times more warming that carbon dioxide. They do not stay in the atmosphere for ever, but in the short term, they could still cause the human race an enormous task which could quickly become unmanageable. Methane (natural gas) is often found in the same place as oil yet, bizarrely, extractors are generally after one or the other. By making rules on methane capture, significant quantities can be stopped from escaping into the atmosphere, never mind the fact that this methane can then be sold, greatly increasing income.
According to a recent NASA study, methane is responsible for about 25% of the global warming that has occurred since the industrial revolution.
Under Obama the central American government tightened rules on methane extraction in an attempt to deal with this issue. The larger companies engaged with the new rules, but unfortunately the smaller companies which are responsible for much of the fracking that occurs complained and the EPA under Trumps oversight (Trump had installed many fossil fuel executives into its ranks) reversed these cuts.
The industry claimed that there was not much leakage and that the problem was under control. Unfortunately this was a lie. At the same time that they were claiming tiny leaks publicly, privately they were admitting to a huge problem.
So far, these lies which are going to cost the world population have not been punished at all. What is worse, we wouldn’t know about the behaviour were it not for a secret recording made of a member of the independent petroleum association. According to the recording Ron Ness president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council told the meeting “We’re just flaring a tremendous amount of gas. This pesky natural gas. The value if it is very minimal”. A few months later, the same organisation had a lawyer state that it is not in their interests to let even a molecule of gas escape.
Yet this requires us to be fools. The most long lasting view of an oil rig is with a flame blowing out, burning off excess gas.
We need to make pollution the expensive option. If venting is the cheapest way to work, lets tax it to such an extreme level that it is worth their while to catch the waste. Of course the best way to end this practice is for the producers to go out of business. While we are moving in that direction at a reasonable speed, it is perhaps too slow for the survival of the way of life that we humans have got used to over the last few millenia. If we continue as we are, the climate we will leave for out children will not be as pleasant.
The US department of Agriculture wildlife service branch has killed 8 pops from a wolf pack in Idaho, this despite the pack having been tracked by a school for 18 years.
This website was designed to simplify wildlife travel – and we are making progress on this (slowly- terrible timing, given the epidemic), however without significant and rapid cuts to the worlds fossil fuel emissions, impacts from global warming will destroy many wildlife habitats so it is of importance.
Climate change is increasingly causing changes in rainfall. This is turning rainforests to savannahs and savannahs to deserts.
Without dealing with climate change, there will be far fewer ecosystems in which to save the wildlife.
This is why the USA is important. At this point the USA emits roughly 16% of the worlds warming gases.
Continue reading “Manchin has made millions from coal since joining the senate, and he may be able to block Biden’s plan to halve greenhouse gas emissions”A small new wolf pack has formed in northern California. This pack, known as the Beckworth pack has established itself in Pumas county. The pack consists of a 2 year old female wolf born in California and two others.
This is only the third wolf pack to establish itself in California in the last century. California and their authorities have been heavily supportive of the recovery of wolves in the west of the USA and have publicly decried decisions made by its neighbours – moves which make wolves returning to the endangered list a significant possibility.
Continue reading “New resident wolf pack in northern California”It might be a shock to many, but Jaguars were once native to the USA. What’s more despite humans biggest efforts, the eradication was not completely successful. The third largest big cat, after Tiger and Lion, was persecuted along with many other native fauna after Europeans started to settle in the USA.
At the end of last year, the people of Colorado have voted to reintroduce wolves to the state by 2023. It should be noted that a wolf has been collared in the state in the last few months. It came from a neighbouring state, and therefore clearly wolves would return on their own eventually.
The proposal squeaked across the line with 50.4% of the vote. Now, this decision is complicated by Trumps foolish move to delist wolves throughout the USA, despite their current position. Estimates of the number of wolves in the USA when settlers arrived, range from 250,000 up to 2 million. Even if we assume the low end of the range, the current wolf population of the lower 48 states in the USA is just 6000, a number that we can safely say is at the most, roughly 2% of historical numbers.
Continue reading “The Colorado population has voted to reintroduce wolves, and how does this square with Trumps delisting of wolves in the USA”Under Trump, the American wolf lost its endangered species status.
This was not a scientific decision, it was a political. It is true that the number of wolves in North America has grown dramatically since hunting was banned across most areas. However it is absolutely absurd to suggest that the population has recovered.
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