Lead remains top killer of California condors

And what is the reaction to this finding by the users of rifles firing lead bullets? “You can’t take that away from us,” and what about the jobs that would be lost? You can read about the debacle here.

Regional cap-and-Ttade effort seeks greater impact by cutting carbon allowances

Most programs that affect, or purport to affect, the public’s way of doing business, at least publicize themselves a bit so as to gain public understanding and support. As a resident of the Northeast, I will admit to having heard about this greenhouse gas project only dimly. So, anyway, here is the glitch: The regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has cut the number of allowances that electric power companies can buy to offset their emissions. Like PPL’s Montour coal-fired plant in central Pennsylvania. The decision, made last week, was intended to shore up the pioneering program as it undergoes its first big progress review this year. While the program has been judged a success by most of the participating states, in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, an oversupply of the allowances — in essence, permits to pollute — has limited the program’s impact. The NY Times offers this coverage.

New USDA plant hardiness list reflects warming climate

Another governmental agency, the Department of Agriculture, has put climate change front and center before Americans’ eyes. This time it’s the plant zone map that one sees on the back of seed packets. Will Congress act? Are you kidding? Of course not. It’s too busy counting the dollars handed to it by campaign contributors and yapping with lobbyists from Big Oil and Big Coal. Tehe American way. And then some.

A fish tale with disastrous global implications

It’s a tale of overfishing via factory ships, and this article spells it out. Think about the issue the next time you sit down in a restaurant and order “today’s catch.”

ABC calls on Interior and Agriculture to curb bird deaths from mining claim markers

ABC stands for American Bird Conservatory, and the mining claims this article refers to are open-ended pipes which trap and kill cavity-nesting birds. This isn’t rocket science, but industry will, of course, claim that regulations would cost jobs and wreck the economy, etc. Never mind our natural heritage.

Removing four dams in Klamath watershed will help fish, farmers

That’s the message of this article. And it’s a message that’s almost always the case whenever talk turns to a dam and its negative ecological impacts. So, I vote to remove the Klamath River dams as well as the four on the lower Snake River.

Not all wetlands are created equal

Yes, that’s true, but all wetlands (except most of those “created” by the Pennsylvania DOT) have ecological roles. Read about those roles in this NY Times piece.

Study links climate change, decline in songbird populations

The results of the study outlined in this newspaper article from Montana have been hinted at in other studies/reports, but this study gives clear warning of what is happening due to human activities, i.e., the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal.

Mercury’s harmful reach has grown, study finds

And the Northeast, being downwind from the coal-fired power plants that emit the toxin, bears the brunt of the damage, that’s now being detected in the region’s songbirds, as the study described in this piece illustrates.

Those big (and invasive) snakes are in Florida for good

That’s the theme of this column from the keyboard of veteran Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen. Think about these snakes the next time you visit the Sunshine State.