Real Good News for all of us…reference Round-up

Several times on the forum I have mentioned how excited I am for the existence of the  Center for Biological Diversity.  

This is a private entity that goes to bat for our wildlife…and they play hardball.  With a boatload of young environmental attorneys, the CBD has plenty of teeth and it is not at all afraid to use them.   I have said many times before…..today it is about law suits.   Sorry, but the bad guys have forced us to this place. And it ain't gonna get better, without getting an awful lot nastier. 

The CBD sued the EPA over the agency's outright unwillingness to get to the bottom of the pesticides issues.  In the link below we see that the EPA struck a deal with the CBD.  I think we are going to see the truth come out here.  The EPA is going to have a lot of eyes focused on its research procedures here and the results of the research.  It is not going to be good for the bad guys.  Nope  


http://www.hcn.org/articles/epa-study-r ... pesticides

Robert 

Have a look at my loon pictures at the link below.  BTW, despite my efforts to keep people away from the nesting loons, they abandoned the nest, most surely because of too many people, too close to them sitting and incubating.  Cannot be proven but it sure makes sense. I had put up a sign, asking people to please not disturb the nesting loons.  Folks could not control themselves with their cell phones.  Went back there early this morning and the two adults are back on the lake enjoying life it seems.  Too late to make another nesting attempt and they are not going to try it.  Ok, I cannot be sure that this pair is the same pair.  But I do believe it.

http://itsaboutnature.smugmug.com

Unlike Democracy, Fascism is when business controls the actions of government, replacing the will of the people.
In 1975 there were less than 500 registered lobbyists working in our capital, in 2007 there were 15,137 working within the industry with an estimated income of 7 billion dollars.

Maine has strong and specific laws protecting Loons. They speak to the approach and distance kept from loons, the use of lead fishing sinkers, and producing large wakes from boats near shoreline: the number one cause of loon nests being flooded out and abandoned. This link is a brochure of loon facts from the Maine State Gov. and Maine Audubon:

http://maineaudubon.org/wp-content/uplo ... POSTER.pdf

Good day all

The article doesn't give me the optimistic outlook that others may have gotten. Towards the bottom of the article, the paragraphs that start with "Last year, the CBD" and "The primary concern" give me a bleak outlook regarding glyphosate and the EPA taking a serious look at the effects on Monarchs. It sounds like spin to me, to avoid facing reality!

Joe

stevenmajor wrote:Unlike Democracy, Fascism is when business controls the actions of government, replacing the will of the people.
In 1975 there were less than 500 registered lobbyists working in our capital, in 2007 there were 15,137 working within the industry with an estimated income of 7 billion dollars.

Maine has strong and specific laws protecting Loons. They speak to the approach and distance kept from loons, the use of lead fishing sinkers, and producing large wakes from boats near shoreline: the number one cause of loon nests being flooded out and abandoned. This link is a brochure of loon facts from the Maine State Gov. and Maine Audubon:

http://maineaudubon.org/wp-content/uplo ... POSTER.pdf

Good day all

Hi Steven

1.  When you use the word fascism, do you mean this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/po ... d=all&_r=0

Yes, that is exactly what you mean and it is also exactly what I mean.  It is exactly what has happened and yet the American people have let it happen.  It is appalling.  We are trying to reverse it now. 

2.  Ref. the loons:

    a.   Yuh right, like those who push the adult (both sexes incubate) off the nest by getting right on top of it to get a picture with their cell phone….are going to back off.  No way!  I had one guy leave a note on my windshield, asking me if I wanted some pictures of loon eggs and assuring me that he did not push the loon off the nest.  Another guy described how he got too close and then quickly backed off for fear of pushing the adult off the nest.   Just before he left in his vehicle he just could not resist going over to his car and coming back with his phone.  He pressed a few buttons and then showed me an image of a loon with its head low on the nest.  I told him that he should not have done that and he agreed.  I asked him if he thought a sign would keep people away.  He encouraged me to do it.  Two days later I had a sign up about 200 feet from the nest, asking people "Please, Do Not Disturb the Loon Nest."

I was encouraged for several days…about a week or so..  But in the end, the nest was abandoned with not a trace of an egg shell.  On the day that I determined the nest had been abandoned I could not find the loons or hear them.  A week later a pair of loons showed.  I assume it was the same pair.  It is too late to nest again now.  But who knows.  

I do know that I am damned sick of people anymore.  That's right.  You read that right.  I am so tired of people doing things that disrespect nature.  And I am so tired of government agencies not doing their job as conservation stewards. 

There is litter at that ramp and the only ones picking it up are those of us who are pissed off about it.  People just leave their bottles and other trash, expecting others to take it out for them.  I called the Department of Conservation and determined that they owned that ramp.  I was told that they had a person who regularly visits that ramp and keeps it clean.  I told them about a large item that was dumped there.  They assured me that their person would discover it and bring someone the next time to carry it out.  That was two months ago and it is still there.  

I will pick up other's trash but that big item will be picked up by the DOC.  I will see to that….because they said they would.  I am not shy about such matters.  

Best regards Steven

People got very proactive about the environment back in the 60's and 70's and because they did, what protections and regulations we have now are the result. I believe your assessment and what we need to do about the state of things is correct Robert--- that we must take action. People are the problem and people are also the solution however.

The average person if asked would say they are good people and care about the environment. They would say they are doing no harm to it and are just trying to make it in life. But the resources spent by most in pursuit of whatever they feel is warranted to bolster their self sense of entitlement are the very things that are doing the damage.
It's no wonder the doomsayers take the tack they do as they know otherwise everyone will not pay attention. Let's get real--if there are 5000 elephants where they should be 50,000 elephants, people are not overly concerned....but if they find out there are only 50 or 5 left, they then do get very concerned. We don't react in a timely manner it seems, only when disaster is in sight..

I'm pretty convinced that until there is a mandate that states clearly that the wildlife and nature of this world has a right to exist, our anthropocentric philosophies will eventually destroy most of it. How else can it be with that sort of thinking process?? Even when we do protect things, most often the rational is that it's to OUR benefit that that particular environmental such and such gets protected. It's always about us, uS, US!!!!!!  So what do we expect then???


Paul


**I'd be willing to bet only 1% of us here have a solar panel on their house. If even that. Not even just one panel. How about a solar water heater??  Nah... windmill?? forget it... electric car--I doubt it!!

I rest my case.

I'm guilty paul. But I do not drink bottle water. Does drinking tap water count?