Beetles, and more, taking toll in Rocky Mountain forests

As this article notes, the beetle epidemic sweeping across vast stretches of the Intermountain and Rocky Mountains is greatly influenced – exacerbated – by human activities that are changing the climate. As in burning coal to make electricity and burning gasoline to travel a half-mile to a store to buy a half gallon of milk. What a travesty.

The not-so-green-mountains of Vermont

That’s the New York Times’ headline for this opinion piece. Some personal issues: One, I just moved to Vermont. In fact I live in Williston, a town mentioned in this op-ed. Two, my late wife, who died last Sept. 27, was a Vermonter by birth. We honeymooned in the Green Mountain State after marrying in the post chapel at Fort Meade, Md. Three, I know Vermont like the back of my proverbial hand. That’s chief among the reasons I moved here after two decades in rusty Pennsylvania, where my wife was  a professor at Penn State University. Fourth, I helped fight some windmill battles in Pennsylvania; I know only too well about the habitat fragmentation and destruction that accompanies such ridgetop development. This is just downright sad. The industrialization of the American native landscape. Damn.

Vermont National Guard going solar

From U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders: “This weekend, the Vermont National Guard will unveil a field of solar panels that will provide nearly 1.5 megawatts of clean energy at its Vermont National Guard base at Burlington International Airport. The array of solar panels is the second largest solar project at any National Guard base nationwide, the most significant solar installation at any military base in New England, and one of the largest solar installations in Vermont. Bernie obtained funding for the project and worked closely with Major General Michael Dubie and his staff as this innovative energy project was installed. The solar panels will save the Guard nearly $225,000 in energy costs every year and help move our country toward energy independence. “We are all proud that the Vermont National Guard has become a model for our military and our nation in terms of sustainable energy,” Bernie said.”

FWS moving on hundreds of ESA-listing petitions

Great news, in an overall sense. Conservative greedheads will pounce on this, of course, as further evidence of an administration spending tax dollars. Too bad. Better to spend it on real conservation like this and not on new highways and roads that fragment, degrade and destroy habitat.

Way of the wolf in Wyoming

That “way” is shoot to kill, as this opinion piece from the NY Times points out in dry fashion. In Wyoming, and in a few other spots in the West, it’s almost as if the OK Corral is back in fashion and to hell with America’s wildlife heritage. I wistfully remember when thenInterior Secretary Bruce Babbitt helped free reintroduced wolves at Yellowstone back in the Clinton days. There was real promise then; now it’s shoot, shoot and shoot again. What a debacle and shameful disgrace.

How will climate change affect Yellowstone National Park?

That’s the question posed by the headline over this New York Times science-section article. Yellowstone, of course, is only one of more than 500 units within the National Park System. Sadly, cutthroat trout in Yellowstone-area streams will perish as their coldwater habitat transitions to warm water better suited to warm-water fishes like bass. And then there are disasters like Glacier National Park – park created to showcase glaciers which are nearly gone now, thanks to human activities.

Climate change and the exodus of species

Denalists like to make the argument that species will just go north, in elevation and latitude. So what’s the big deal? Well, what happens when a species has gone up in elevation as far as it can go and no further mountainside/summit awaits? Duh. The science is increasingly clear and pointed on this matter. Human activities, principally the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil, are wrecking the planet in ways the pro-bulldozer crowd never dreamed of. Read more about the exodus of species.

In North Dakota, flames of wasted natural gas light the sky

In addition to industrializing the landscape – our place on the planet – we waste prodigiously, as this NY Times article notes in great detail. More waste, more pollution, less wildness in the land.

Canada to built border fence if Perry elected in U.S.

Uh, oh. Rick Perry? He of drought=twisted Texas? Read about Canada’s plan.

Sprawl-happy Va. Beach is eighth best city in U.S., magazine says

Gee, this is a real coup for the Virginia coastal megalopolis, part of the sprawling blob known as Hampton Roads. But let’s remember what happened to the Pacific Northwest city of Dante’s Peak after another magazine bestowed similar honors on it. What would the character portrayed by actor Pierce Brosnan in “Dane’s Peak” say about this big honor?