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South Africa kills sport of shooting rhinos at close range (in closed pens)

"Canned" always signals a welcome improvement -- whether it's canned meat, canned asparagus, or canned hunts. A canned hunt is one in which the prey is an animal raised in captivity and confined in a small area so the "hunter" can shoot it at close range. Usually with some trees around, for that authentic woodsy feel. Not quite as easy as firing a few rounds into a venison steak, but close. Canned hunts are popular in the states, for those hunters-on-the-go who just can't wander around all day looking for prey, and because they're fairly idiot-proof (unless you go shooting your partner in the face).

But sadly, South Africa just passed a law that takes the best part out of going on a big-game safari in the deepest jungles of Africa: the convenience. Canned hunts for wealthy tourists, or "tinned hunts" for wealthy British tourists, are a multi-million dollar industry in South Africa.

Prices paid ranged from $25 for pigeons and quail to $25,000 for a white rhinoceros. Breeders have used crossbreeding and genetic manipulation to make the potential trophies more appealing -- by producing large numbers of albino lions, for instance.

When the new law was passed, breeders were working on their most appealing hunting trophy yet: animals with their heads pre-mounted on wooden plaques.

Depressing Friday reading

Sorry for the paucity of blogging -- we've been have big meetings about the Future of Grist (I won't give anything away, but suffice to say we gotta wear shades).

As some light Friday reading, try an article from Harvard Magazine called "Fueling Our Future" (and don't miss the sidebar, "Is Nuclear Power Scaleable?"). It's a tight, cogent, and fairly disheartening explanation of the sheer scope of what we need to do: reduce GHG emissions by 60 to 70 percent by 2050. And that's just to stabilize climate temperature at already dangerously high levels.

Harvard prof Daniel Schrag, who's featured in the piece, argues fairly convincingly that we're going to be using a lot more coal for energy in the next several decades, and so there's no way around finding reasonably clean ways to do it. His own scheme is to carry the CO2 out on ships and inject it into deep ocean waters where pressure and temperature will keep it down. Sounds like something to pin your future on, huh?

None of the people featured in the article are exactly thrilled about coal, or about nuclear, which they also endorse. They just view them as inevitable realities.

Read the piece and share your thoughts in comments.

Electric car gets its kicks on Route 66

Electric car booster Remy Chevalier -- editor at large for the zine Electrifying Times and last seen at swanky parties with Grist higher-ups -- is getting his kicks on Route 66. No, literally. If you're in Chicago next Friday, head to the Funky Buddha lounge to help Remy and Co. kick off a two-week trip from Chicago to Los Angeles on the infamous Route 66.

No gas-guzzling road trip this -- the crew has stated three eco-goals:

Oil production’s peaking? Snag a Hummer

Memo to self: Keep up with the Wall Street Journal's daily Oil-News Roundup.

Two choice nuggets emerged today. First, there's this discussion of Royal Dutch Shell's latest quarterly earnings report:

Royal Dutch Shell, the world's fourth-largest publicly traded oil company, reported a tiny, 3% increase in first-quarter earnings from a year ago, but said the high cost of sucking oil and natural gas out of the ground could delay some exploration projects, especially long-term developments, including one planned for the Gulf of Mexico. Shell also said it could no longer promise to replace 100% of the reserves it depletes this year. [Emphasis added for the benefit of peak-oil enthusiasts.]

Next, on the auto-biz front, there's this:

Just as large retailers enter the market

Although a recent Wall Street Journal report properly touts the impressive upward trend of organic-food sales, data cited in the story show that the actual rate of growth in organic sales is falling slightly, just as mega-retailers poise themselves to enter the organics market.

From Beauty to Burgers

Miss environmentality The newly crowned Miss Rhode Island has taped up her boobies, Vaselined her teeth, and strutted her stuff in a swimsuit and heels — all in the service of fighting global warming. The tiara’d staffer for the Harvard Green Campus Initiative says it’s all part of her plan to push the issue in […]

An assist from an angler scribe

I must admit I reach first for the sports page in the morning. The headlines on the front page of the Washington Post these days are just too depressing to be the first things I face.

So imagine my surprise last weekend when I found biting environmental-policy commentary in section E. Never one to read fishing or hunting commentaries, the pictures of bloviating politicians smack in the middle of renowned wildlife columnist Angus Phillips' column caught my attention.

Titled "Party Talk Leaves Plenty of Room for Action," Phillips absolutely dismantles a Washington press event on the Potomac (literally -- there were optional canoe trips) to announce the everything's-voluntary-and-we-won't-really-fund-it National Fish Habitat Action Plan.

Showing that he could have a second career as a political reporter, Phillips concludes with:

Green-Up on Aisle Six

Supermarket chains now offering store-brand organic foods The hippies-and-yuppies stereotype that’s long stuck to organic food may soon fade, as mainstream supermarket chains in the U.S. introduce hundreds of store-brand organic products. Supermarket organics can cost 10 to 15 percent less than national-brand organics, while still adhering to the same federal standards. Consumer demand is […]

It’s All Happening at the Zooplankton

New species of deep-sea zooplankton discovered Scientists have found 10 to 20 new species of zooplankton deep in the Atlantic Ocean, including teeny-tiny shrimp-like creatures, gooey jellyfish-esque plankton, and swimming worms. Zooplankton form the base of many ocean food chains and act as carbon sinks by feeding on carbon-laden plant phytoplankton and then sinking to […]

The Artful Roger

Roger Mustalish, Amazon researcher and protector, answers readers’ questions For Roger Mustalish, head of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research, a trip to Peru’s Amazon rainforest is, to quote the ubiquitous credit-card ads, priceless. (And by entering Grist‘s sweepstakes, your trip to Peru really could be price-less!) As InterActivist this week, Mustalish chats […]