Articles by Biodiversivist
My real name is Russ Finley. I also have my own blog called Biodiversivist, which contains articles in addition to those submitted to Grist. I live in Seattle, married with children. Suffice it to say that although I am trained and educated as an engineer, my passion is nature. I very much want my grandchildren to live on a planet where lions, tigers, and bears have not joined the long and growing list of creatures that used to be.
All Articles
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Does this Shahtoosh shawl make my butt look big?
Ever wonder why warthog fur coats never caught on? Infinitesimal progress is being made to control the illegal wildlife trade (outpaced only by the illegal drug and weapon trades). According to this article in the Independent, 250 "shahtoosh" shawls and four tons of ivory were intercepted just this summer. Some elements in Japan are starting to irritate me no end. In addition to undermining whaling bans and paying $50K for a tuna, they now want to resume the ivory trade. -
Lay media starting to get serious
I got a call this week from David Hyde, assistant producer of an excellent local public radio (KUOW) talk show called Weekday. He was doing research for a show (it ran last Thursday) titled "Biofuels: Hope or Hype?" I was able to call in for a quick question about how the pollution from biodiesel cars compare to gasoline cars (with all of their modern air-pollution controls). The gist was missed and the guest ended up comparing biodiesel to regular diesel instead, as usual. Oddly enough, nobody appears to have done the gasoline/biodiesel comparison yet ... except me. Maybe I planted a seed though.
It was an interesting show. Click here to hear it on RealAudio.
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Time to call in “the governing body”
I like this idea of a wildlife governing body. It would have to have teeth of course; laws without a means of enforcing them are meaningless. Governments could no longer claim they don't have the funds to stop illegal logging or land use if they could just call in the "governing body." Think of it as the conservation branch of the U.N., dedicated to preventing biodiversity loss instead of preventing wars. -
Just my imagination, once again…
Greenpeace is not having much luck catching illegal tuna fishermen because the fishermen are are not having much luck catching any tuna. However, you can bet they will continue to try as long as the Japanese are willing to pay $50,000 for a single large adult bluefin. You wouldn't think that one or two trips to the local sushi bar a year would help drive tuna to extinction, but that's how it works. Our biodiversity is dying a death from 6.5 billion tiny cuts. This is also why harping at consumers has such limited success. The good news is that this will free up Greenpeace resources to shadow other boats in other waters until whatever they are fishing for goes extinct. What if our Navy, instead of wandering around killing whales and dolphins with their sonar, were to spend some of their free time helping Greenpeace enforce fishing bans?
