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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R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me…
I photographed this little guy in a small village in Costa Rica. He spent much of his day, ball in hand, staring wistfully out the front window of his tiny home, which also served as a used clothing store. Most homes in this village did double or even triple duty. Our friends stayed with another family in their guestroom, which was above their living room, which also served as the village motorcycle repair shop. David Horsey wrote a refreshing and hopeful piece yesterday titled Liberating women from macho culture frees all. In it, he describes how the women of an impoverished village in Mexico have improved their lives and the lives of their children.
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Wattle envy
My youngest had her first practice "chicken showing" at the fairgrounds yesterday. She oiled up his beak, comb, wattle, feet, and legs while he stood on the kitchen table the night before. She could not have been prouder walking about with her giant rooster, which she can barely get her arms around. Roosters are just guys (with feathers) and can get pretty aggressive. Bumblebee, however, is as gentle as a lamb (and a whole lot louder). We were sorry to learn that the 4-H spring poultry showing at our local fairgrounds has been cancelled, suggesting that there may be no birds at our fair this summer. Oh well. I honestly don't know if this move makes sense from a statistical perspective or not. Some fairs in North America last year did not show poultry, and the French government banned poultry at their big fair just last week. But, having witnessed the rash of public event cancellations and the spike in duct tape sales following 9/11, one can hazard a guess as to what the public reaction might be, regardless of statistics, now that word about poultry show cancellations is getting onto the front pages of America's mainstream press.
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Jurassic beavers and hairless skunks.
So, how do you tie a story about a Jurassic beaver in with one about a hairless skunk? Looks more like a shaved weasel to me, by the way (maybe that's because skunks are in the weasel family). Random genetic mutations like that seen in the skunk are what drive evolution. Given enough global warming, we may start to see more of them. The same mutation imparted an evolutionary advantage to naked mole rats. In fact, a similar mutation happened in our past, which eventually lead to the evolution of clothing (via a December post on Biopolitical). Which brings me to an analogy. Periods of rapid change in an environment spark bursts of evolution where new designs are tested out; similarly, global warming, combined with peak oil, is creating a frenzy of new technology designs in human cultures, all being tested in the crucible of the free market. It will be interesting to see what shakes out.
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Moth dearth, cat-on-cat violence, poached oxen, and other oddities
I photographed this moth in Costa Rica. It was about four inches across and looked like a pair of flying lips. A study has found that the number of moths in Britain has declined by about 30% in the last thirty years. That's a 10% decline per decade. Sixty-two species have already gone extinct on the island in the 20th century. Extrapolating into the future, you could expect the last moth to drop dead in about seventy years, assuming the decline remains linear. A Florida Panther (radio collared of course) was recently tranquilized for eating, among other things, a house cat. The biologists seemed to know everything about this cougar -- how many cubs he has sired, his age. He even has a name and a number. I have to wonder how many times in its eleven-year life it has been shot with tranquilizer darts and radio collared. He must feel like a pin cushion. Rapid housing development continues to destroy habitat. There are only 80 Florida panthers left on the planet.
