Posts Tagged ‘wildlife’

Should the Precautionary Principle Shut Down Wind Turbines?

In 2012 Scientific American asked: Are Wind Turbines Getting More Bird and Bat-Friendly? In case you weren’t aware, wind energy has an ecological downside that’s hasn’t yet been smoothed out. As AP reporter Dina Cappiello wrote earlier this year, “the green industry is allowed to do not so green things”: It kills protected species with impunity and conceals the…Continue Reading…

When Nature Bites Back

That was the headline of a book review I wrote years ago about Boulder, Colorado being stalked by mountain lions. When I briefly lived there in the late 2000s, some of the natives (okay, they were my colleagues) sniggered at my histrionic fears. Now it looks like the wildlife in Boulder is getting even peskier. Check…Continue Reading…

Speaking Truth to Nature

Bob Simon, the wildlife correspondent for 60 Minutes, offers an unvarnished perspective on naturalists and wildlife biologists, and why he loves animals. Earlier this week, he was interviewed by Ann Silvio, an editor with 60 Minutes Overtime. Check out the short video segment. Meanwhile, here’s the good stuff. Silvio: Is there something about doing animal…Continue Reading…

Feral Deniers

A wildlife ecologist seeks to tame them.

Doomsday Chronicles, pt. 4

Bryan Walsh at Time has a nice

Sudden Impact

The Wildlife Society asks: Can a 10 pound bird bring down an 80 ton airplaine? Hell yeah: When an aircraft and a goose collide, the goose weighs more than an elephant during the instant of collision. This force is enough to cripple an aircraft and can force emergency landings (We all remember the Miracle on…Continue Reading…

Call of the Wild

Several days ago, Andy Revkin wrote a Dot Earth post about what I would characterize as an ecotopia for conservationists: After three years of meetings and study, a broad array of conservation groups, government scientists and other experts on North American wildlife policy have produced a road map for restoring some large free-roaming populations of…Continue Reading…

The Silving Lining to Wolf Hunts

Environmentalists are upset that wolves can now be legally hunted in Idaho and Montana. Michael Hutchins provides some necessary context to this emotional issue: There is no doubt that some individuals and organizations will have a difficult time shifting from a mindset where wolves are rare creatures that need every protection to one where wolves are…Continue Reading…

Irrational Nature Lovers

This is a pretty big generalization coming from a wildlife professional: Most Americans know very little about wildlife and nature, and this affects their ability to make intelligent, rational, and well-considered decisions. Also, I don’t think that intelligence + knowledge of nature necessarily = “rational, well-considered decisions.” In Boulder, Colorado, where I just spent a year,…Continue Reading…

The Incredible Shrinking Species

Via The Wildlife Society blog, we learn of a new study that shows birds in Australia are shrinking because of warmer temperatures. Of course, there’s always a silver lining: Scientists commenting on the study said this was both good news and bad.  It was “alarming”, they said, that global warming may be causing evolutionary change, but…Continue Reading…