Discovery Channel exploits wolf killing, garners highest cable TV ratings among males 25-54.
Posts tagged guns.
Poachers kill 28 forest elephants with AK-47s in Camaroon, Africa
This occurred shortly after 178 countries, including the US, rejected an agreement to protect elephants from ivory poaching. The demand for ivory is driven by Asia’s fast economic growth, lack of education, the Catholic church (yes), and corruption.
Poachers have killed 28 endangered forest elephants in the Nki and Lobeke national parks in southeast Cameroon in recent weeks, the conservation organization WWF said on Wednesday.
With demand for ivory rising from Asia, poachers have reduced the population of Africa’s forest elephants by 62 percent over the last decade, putting the species on track for extinction, conservationists say.
The parks of southeast Cameroon, along with parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon, have some of the last significant populations of forest elephants.
“Elephants in these two protected areas in the Congo Basin are facing a threat to their existence,” said Zacharie Nzooh, WWF Cameroon representative in the East Region.
Nzooh said that between February 10 and March 1, WWF found the carcasses of 23 elephants, stripped of their tusks, deep in the Nki national park. A further five were found without their tusks in the Lobeke national park, further to the east.
“The poachers used automatic weapons, such as AK-47s, reflecting the violent character of elephant poaching,” he said, adding that park wardens lacked good weapons.
The Citadel Community will house between 3,500 and 7,000 patriotic American families who agree that being prepared for the emergencies of life and being proficient with the American icon of Liberty — the Rifle — are prudent measures. There will be no HOA. There will be no recycling police and no local ordinance enforcers from City Hall.
Via iiicitadel. My urban planning brain asploded reading this site. There are alternative communities in the world, but this one, gah! I can’t even type any of the things.Father of Newtown victim heckled at hearing ›
Vile.
But why did I post this?
There’s an interesting section in this article, one that environmentalists can readily relate to, and that’s the “jobs defense.”
The Jobs Defense is a common response by businesses that fear new regulation. For those that know a bit of environmental and economic history, this defense been used effectively for centuries to tamp down protest, influence politicians, and garner public support.
The Jobs Defense was used to defend from regulating slavery, child labor, the right to vote, organize unions, pass environmental regulations, and myriad other policies that benefit you today.
In this case, a public meeting was called to democratically discuss how to prevent slaughtering children (dramatic, but that’s the language we’re using up here in New England regarding the Newtown, Ct mass shooting). True, the headline is about some brainless bullies who heckled a dad who lost his 6 year old boy.
But to me, the interesting aspect of this is that the journalist sort of dances around the examining the Jobs Defense.
A gun manufacturer is quoted in the article that his company, “(Pumps) tens of millions of dollars each year into the Connecticut economy.” The journalist does mention that gun manufacturers offered no solutions at the meeting. But the Jobs Defense went unchallenged.
There was no discussion or questioning that his product causes deaths.* There’s no discussion of why “tens of millions of dollars” is a reasonable response to the death of Americans. Isn’t that curious? That we all accept that the Jobs Defense is a so legitimate that it gets a free pass?
Barack Obama uses the Jobs Defense, too. In fact, it’s a primary driver of getting the Keystone XL Pipeline approved - jobs. Indeed, there are thousands of articles discussing jobs in relation to building the oil pipeline, have a look.
None of them, that I found, examined the benefits of environmental protection over the few jobs that the line will create. It’s true that some have examined the claim that the line will create a certain number of jobs. No one can say clearly if the line will create 500 jobs or 20,000.
But this still doesn’t examine the facile and rather weak argument that jobs should be a primary motivation versus incredibly beneficial, American alternatives. From my point of view, the Jobs Defense must be examined. Should jobs be held in reverence over human health? If so, why?
*For those who wish to throw the “What about knives!” trope at me, I’d point out that knives are highly regulated, perhaps more so than guns.
You can’t pass into many buildings with a knife, bring one on a plane, travel with one in a vehicle in certain states, nor legally carry a concealed knife in many communities. The size of certain knives are regulated. And types of knives are regulated, such as butterfly and other spring loaded knives.
You cannot cross a border with a knife, per international and domestic law. And police officers confiscate knives as a matter of routine (some law enforcement agencies confiscate so many knives that they auction them to generate money). And, of course, if you wield a knife, citizens and cops are authorized and protected by countless laws to shoot you.
Note, further, that environmental regulations protect you from these rather benign utensils. Manufacturers are prevented from using certain chemicals and metals that poison your body, like lead and mercury.
In any case, this trope is a whiny and weak diversion, a fallacious straw man that keeps the gun advocate from taking personal responsibility for contributing to actual harms and deaths to their fellow Americans.
That’s what regulation looks like. Thousands of knife laws were passed to protect people from harm. And gun laws aim to do the same. There’s no legitimate reason to limit gun laws, especially not the Jobs Defense.
Ultimate irony: Lead bullets killing American symbol of freedom, the Bald Eagle. This video shouldn’t just upset animal lovers. Eagle habitat is threatened by development, deforestation, climate change, ecosystem disturbance, poaching, and lead bullets. When a hunters shoot deer, they leave the guts in what’s called a “gut-pile.” These piles are then eaten by foragers, such as the Bald Eagle. Bits and pieces of the lead bullets remain in these piles. And lead is poisonous, as you can see from this heartbreaking video.
Many hunters and enthusiasts, led by the nose by the NRA, are opposed to banning lead bullets. This is because they don’t want the government restricting their “freedom.” It is the ultimate irony.
bald eagles eat the remains of deer left when hunters field dress the animals, adding that lead bullet fragments poison the eagles.
About 30 cases of bald eagle lead poisoning are reported each year, but Henderson said it’s likely many more die.
“We could easily be losing over a hundred eagles a year to this,” he said. “So we just need to provide hunters with the information about making good choices so they have better ammo for their hunting experience, but also nontoxic ammo that will not have follow through consequences for our national bird.”
Henderson explained how the bald eagles are poisoned. “When you get anywhere from 150,000 too 200,000 deer gut piles out in the woods after a successful deer season, that represents a lot of free forage for these birds of prey,” he said. “And if there are tiny lead fragments in those it does not take very much lead to kill that eagle.”
Copper bullets are about twice as expensive as lead ammunition. The cost prevents many hunters from making the switch.
Read more about lead bullets and Bald Eagles from Minnesota Public Radio.
Very tense (and free!) documentary trailer to a ridiculous wild-west (libertarian?) style of resource extraction, corruption, and big oil lies in the Niger Delta. Just watch!
Meet the Delta Boys – armed rebels who zoom around the Delta in high-speed motor boats, sabotaging oil infrastructure, blackmailing the oil companies, kidnapping workers, and tapping into their pipelines to feed a lucrative but dangerous black market in oil they claim is rightfully theirs.Desmogblog (http://s.tt/1qdD1)
City management FAIL of 2012? Absolutely incredible story out of Detroit. An EMT’s ambulance breaks down. He decides to film what it’s like at night while waiting for help. Keep your volume on. Detroit is experiencing the worst declines in the U.S. with massive budget cuts, half the population gone, and Fallujah levels of crime.
This is happening in America.
Egypt’s endangered Gazelles taken down by machines guns and pick-up trucks. Piece by piece, we’ll kill this planet yet…
“Egypt’s gazelle population has decreased consistently and drastically for the past four decades mainly due to two factors: unregulated hunting practices and habitat destruction. Three species of gazelle used to live across Egypt. The Arabian gazelle is thought to have completely disappeared, as the most recent footprints of this mammal were found in the 1930s in Wadi al-Arish at the border with Israel. The slender-horned gazelle’s population is difficult to estimate, but according to Omar Attum, professor of biology at Indiana University Southeast who closely studies Egypt’s gazelles, the number of slender-horned gazelles is likely no higher than a hundred. “Slender-horned gazelles have low population densities. There have been some records of them in Siwa recently, but I really worry as the revolution in Libya has made weapons more widely available in a very large and porous border area,” he explains, stressing that whenever there is an armed conflict anywhere in the world, wildlife is threatened. Richard Hoath, British naturalist and author of the book, “A Field Guide to the Mammals of Egypt,” explains that the population of slender-horned gazelles is limited to an area southwest of Fayoum. “This gazelle is strictly a desert species; it is able to survive without drinking water its entire life, provided it can feed on desert shrubs and bushes,” he explains animatedly.”Source: Almasry Alyoum
Wow. Can’t imagine eminent domain working at large scales like this anymore. Everything is already built (sort of). Also, I’ve really been swooning over the LATimes.tumblr, lately…
July 31, 1958: Lomie Puckett stands guard to prevent bulldozers from leveling her Edendale house for the construction of the Golden State Freeway. Puckett wanted more money than offered for the house.
Read more about the incident on Framework.
Photo credit: John Malmin / Los Angeles Times
(via latimes)
Breaking PSA. This should catch fire ASAP. Reblog widely. Please be measured with your tone. It’s time to end the popular, “OMG I’m shocked!” And instead, post a link to your Senator’s website and send an email to him or her supporting Lautenberg’s proposal. You can read Lautenberg’s proposal, here.
Find your Senator’s email address, here: http://www.senate.gov/contact
By the way, the recruitment video that revkin refers to is not above, but here: http://youtu.be/EpRQzTP8H1o
Thanks,
mike
Al Qaeda message to would-be terrorists on U.S. soil: Go down to your local gun show and stock up. I have good friends who are avid shooters and gun owners, but I agree with Senator Lautenberg that some changes in law are way overdue:
NEWARK, N.J. – U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), author of legislation to close the “Terror Gap” in U.S. gun laws and eliminate the “Gun Show Loophole,” today released a statement following new evidence that Al Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in U.S. gun laws to carry out terrorist attacks.
“This chilling video from a known Al Qaeda operative lays out the threat posed by gaping holes in U.S. gun laws. Instead of inviting terrorists to head down to the gun show or local gun store to arm themselves, we need to pass common-sense laws that protect the safety and security of our nation,” Lautenberg said. “Terror plots using readily-available guns and explosives are becoming more common and can easily be carried out within the United States. Al Qaeda has figured this out, when will the American gun lobby?”
A video message released yesterday featuring Adam Gadahn, an American-born Al Qaeda member, urges others to exploit weaknesses in U.S. gun laws to carry out terrorist attacks. In the video Gadahn states, “America is awash with easily obtainable firearms…What are you waiting for?” The video is available here: http://youtu.be/EpRQzTP8H1o
Lautenberg released a report in October 2010, “Firearms, Explosives and Terrorists – A Looming Threat – A Major U.S. Vulnerability,” examining the dangers posed to the United States by a commando-style terrorism attack using guns or explosives. The report points to the shootings at Ft. Hood and Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as the attempted bombing in Times Square, as demonstrating the interest and ability of terrorists to launch attacks in the United States using guns and explosives.
Lautenberg introduced the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Criminals Act (S. 34) to close the “Terror Gap,” a loophole in U.S. law that prohibits the government from blocking the sale of a gun or explosive to a terror suspect. The bill would provide the Attorney General with authority to stop the sale of guns or explosives when a background check reveals that the purchaser is a known or suspected terrorist and the Attorney General reasonably believes that the person may use a firearm or explosives in connection with terrorism. Under current federal law, being a known or suspected terrorist is not a disqualifying factor for buying guns and explosives.
At Senator Lautenberg’s request, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been tracking the number of times that a background check required for the purchase of a gun or explosive indicates the applicant is on the terror watch list. Between February 2004 and December 2010, there were 1,453 cases in which individuals on the terror watch list were involved in a firearm or explosives background check. In 91 percent of those cases – a total of 1,321 times – they were cleared to proceed with the purchase.
Lautenberg has also introduced the Gun Show Background Check Act (S. 35) to close the loophole that allows guns to be sold, even to criminals and terrorists, without background checks at gun shows. The bill would require that sellers at gun shows perform the same background checks that licensed gun dealers are required to perform under the Brady Law. The Gun Show Background Check Act of 2011 is virtually identical to the Lautenberg amendment passed by the Senate in the 106th Congress as part of the Juvenile Justice bill.
Climate Adaptation
by Michael Cote
I want to punch climate change in the face.
A blog about the interactions between the built environment, people, and nature.
I'm a climate change consultant specializing in climate adaptation, environmental law, and urban planning based in the U.S. In addition to traveling and hiking, I research, publish, and lecture on how cities can adapt to climate change.
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