Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced last week that state wildlife agencies in Idaho and Montana have been approved to take over management of gray wolf populations in their states from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Consider this basic and sobering group of facts: In the 100 years and change since we dug that first well, the human race has used half of all the oil on the planet. Author Michael C. Ruppert points out that this oil took literally millions of years to produce, and is the result of climactic conditions that have existed on a grand scale at only one time in the Earth’s 4.5 billion-year history.
In its first public response to recommendations it requested from a panel of marine experts, the Bush administration last week announced the creation of a Committee on Ocean Policy designed to head off growing problems with marine ecosystems. The committee will spearhead federal efforts to limit overfishing, convert warships to research vessels and improve monitoring of ocean conditions in U.S. coastal areas.
In an effort to reduce not only visitation but also snowmobile traffic during the fragile winter season, Yellowstone National Park is now restricting access between December 15 and April 22 to those traveling with commercial guiding services (who in turn must apply for limited permits). The 44 lucky visitors who got in on the first day of the new season reported unprecedented peace and quiet in one of America’s most popular national parks.
As part of the most comprehensive study on worldwide avian biodiversity to date, researchers from Stanford University predict that within a century, 10 percent of bird species in the world will be extinct, with an additional 15 percent endangered.
After serving little more than a year at the helm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), former three-term Utah governor Mike Leavitt is getting a promotion to head up the Bush administration’s Department of Health and Human Services. Leavitt is known for towing the Republican party line, and is expected to be easily confirmed to replace outgoing HHS secretary Tommy Thompson.
I was relieved to discover last week that, even though the air that I breathe has just been deemed unhealthy by the federal government, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hard at work making things better.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) announced last week that Japanese automakers continue to lead the pack in terms of lowering emissions and increasing fuel efficiency in their vehicles. Honda, Nissan and Toyota took top honors in the environmental group’s biennial survey of the vehicles made by the world’s top six automakers.
Against the backdrop of ongoing international climate talks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, sources close to British Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed rumors last week that Great Britain is trying to involve the United States in a new international treaty on global warming that emphasizes technological fixes while promoting the development of renewable energy.
My day is always brightened when packages arrive from the libertarian Cato Institute. They often contain books. The latest was a tome from Patrick J. Michaels, a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a senior fellow at Cato. Entitled <I>Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians and the Media</I>, it purports to set the record straight about climate science.
