In Pakistan, monsoon flooding forces spiders to swarm into trees. Their webs may have cut down on malarial mosquitoes, doubtless appreciated by the millions who lost their homes in 2010 when ten years worth of rain fell in a week, inundating a fifth of the country. 2011 monsoons are shaping up to be comparably catastrophic. More on aid efforts here.
Photo: Russell Watkins for U.K.’s Department of International Development
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at the Haston Free Public Library! There are wonderful photos of last weekend’s visit to Harvard Forest at the Library website: That gaze up the tree trunk gives you an idea of what it’s like to be a 320-year-old black gum. (Anybody remember 1691? That tree does).
And coming this weekend (Saturday, 1-3pm)—a field trip and easy hike at Mandell Hill, an East Quabbin Land Trust property in Hardwick, where the incomparable EQLT is fighting the good fight against invasives, reclaiming former pastureland, and welcoming back the bobolinks and meadowlarks of yore. Directions here.
Photo: Don Doe
I was honored to kick off a community-wide reading of Rewilding the World at the beautiful Haston Free Public Library in North Brookfield, MA on October 6, 2011. We had a great crowd, and the event received lots of fine local coverage, by Brad Miner in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Gus Steeves in The Spencer New Leader.
My thanks to everyone who came, all the friends of the Library, and to all who helped pull together this month-long series of special events, field trips, and even a concert, particularly Harbour Hodder, Library Trustee; Ann Kidd, Library Director; Ellen Smith, Library Trustee; and Louise Garwood, who designed the gorgeous banner & flyer.
For more on upcoming rewilding events, check out the Library website.
Come to the Haston Free Public Library in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, on 6 October 2011, 7pm, for an evening of rewilding with Caroline Fraser. Then enjoy a month of free conservation field trips and a special benefit concert for the East Quabbin Land Trust featuring Sarah Stockwell-Arthen.
Learn more in today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Say Hello to Mawingo for World Rhino Day! And celebrate rhinos by spreading the word: Rhino Horn is Not Medicine.
Check out The Crucial Role of Predators: A New Perspective on Ecology, by Caroline Fraser at Yale Environment 360.
Photo of cheetahs at Lewa: Caroline Fraser
and Tapir and Giant Anteater! One of nearly 52,000 awesome photos captured by 429 cameras during the Global Camera Trap Mammal Study, documenting 105 species in 7 protected areas.
Photo of puma in Volcan Barva, Costa Rica, courtesy of Organization for Tropical Studies, a member of the TEAM network.
New Titi Monkey discovered in Brazil’s Amazon: Find photos and an excellent write-up at Mongabay. This species could be one of 8.7 million on earth, according to a new study in PloS Biology.
Photo © Júlio Dalponte at Mongabay.
Are you liking Rick Perry, who thinks climate science is a cult? If not, consider supporting the Tar Sands Action, a sit-in at the White House (and select spots around the nation) slated for August 20-September 3. Read Bill McKibben’s Washington Post op-ed! Sign the petition! Pressure Obama—who can block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline pumping oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico! (After all, what could go wrong with a 2,147 mile-long crude-oil pipeline?) Twitter! Get arrested!
Photo: leftwingnutjob
![Activist Jailed for Two Years While BP CEO Walks Free
If you’re in any doubt about whether the rights of the corporation trump those of the individual, have a look at the case of Tim DeChristopher, an activist who, in 2008, bid on Utah oil and gas drilling leases as an act of civil disobedience, to protect public lands from destruction. In Bill McKibben’s opinion, DeChristopher is guilty of nothing “except [hurting] the pride of the Bureau of Land Management,” one of the government agencies that shills for corporations. The BLM’s pride doesn’t come cheap: DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in jail and fined $10,000. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, energy companies and the BLM claimed “hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.”
Meanwhile, Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP at the time of the Gulf Oil spill, got his life back, along with a $17 million severance package.
DeChristopher, 29, grew up in a West Virginia despoiled by coal mining and mountain-top removal. He told the court:
“This is not going away. At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like. In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow.”
Read the rest of his statement at AlterNet.](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp0hq64ebK1qzn54fo1_400.jpg)
If you’re in any doubt about whether the rights of the corporation trump those of the individual, have a look at the case of Tim DeChristopher, an activist who, in 2008, bid on Utah oil and gas drilling leases as an act of civil disobedience, to protect public lands from destruction. In Bill McKibben’s opinion, DeChristopher is guilty of nothing “except [hurting] the pride of the Bureau of Land Management,” one of the government agencies that shills for corporations. The BLM’s pride doesn’t come cheap: DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in jail and fined $10,000. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, energy companies and the BLM claimed “hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.”
Meanwhile, Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP at the time of the Gulf Oil spill, got his life back, along with a $17 million severance package.
DeChristopher, 29, grew up in a West Virginia despoiled by coal mining and mountain-top removal. He told the court:
“This is not going away. At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like. In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow.”
Read the rest of his statement at AlterNet.
DNA samples show that a mountain lion from a population native to the Black Hills of South Dakota walked 1,800 miles across farms, prairies, and forests, skirting the Great Lakes and Chicago, only to be hit by a car on June 11 on a road in Milford, Connecticut, fifty miles from New York City. Scientists quoted in a BBC report believe it may be “the longest-ever recorded journey of a land mammal.”
The big cat’s movements drive home, once again, our top predators’ need for big wilderness and large-scale protection.
Photo: BBC
Thanks ARKive!
Just one of ARKive’s “vacation pix”…cooling photos of chilling critters, including this surfing Gentoo penguin.
Maybe so….Check out the possibilities in today’s report at Yale Environment 360.
Then on your bike, as the Brits say, and start posting buds (Project BudBurst) and counting squirrels (yes, Project Squirrel): Citizen Science starts at home.
Alert hiker Joe Sebille captured the first photos of a grizzly in Washington’s North Cascades National Park in nearly a half-century. Hiking last October, Sebille snapped the bruin with a point-and-shoot and only realized recently, on showing the pic to a park ranger, the momentous nature of his encounter.
And, in further carnivorous coverage, a new wolf pack—complete with nursing mom— has surfaced in Washington’s Kittitas County. Might be time to move back to the old stomping grounds.
Photo: Joe Sebille