wildlife

Seventy

• percent by which global energy use has increased since 1970 • percentage of the world’s commercially important marine fish stocks that are fully fished, over-exploited, or depleted • percentage of the roughly 3,000 plants identified as having cancer-fighting properties that grow in rainforests • percentage of irrigation water in developing nations that never reaches […]

Wigging Out

Are efforts to protect the dolphin putting other fish in a sea of trouble?

There were predictable cries of protest from some conservationists who focus on charismatic megafauna when revised standards for use of the “dolphin safe” tuna label were announced by the Commerce Department in April. Though the new rules stipulate that no dolphins should be killed or seriously injured, they do let canners label their product “dolphin […]

Sex sells, but can it save the planet?

Dr. Susan M. Block is not your typical crusader for endangered species. Sure, peace signs dangle from her ears — perhaps a little large, but not completely outrageous. Her voice carries conviction and bespeaks a clear intelligence — Yale, magna cum laude. A doctorate, too, in philosophy. Then she fled academia to build her own […]

Come on, Rudy, Sign the Local Motion

Instant correction: Those of you who perused Muckraker early this morning or over the weekend may have read that New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) was prepared to sign a major letter from mayors and other local officials calling for the federal government to do more to combat global warming. Not so keen to […]

This scientist is making quite a buzz

The San Rafael Desert — 500 square miles of rolling gravel broken by an occasional butte or sandstone formation — certainly isn’t the prettiest place in eastern Utah. Dotted with cattle and exploratory oil rigs, it is a living example of the federal government’s policy of multiple use on public lands. For just about anybody […]

Don't let a chance to save the butterfly flutter by

A couple of weeks ago, while the federal government was removing peregrine falcons from the list of endangered species, I was out watching the first monarch butterflies migrate through the desert on their way to Mexico. I saw both the migratory monarchs and their homebody cousins, the butterflies known as Queens, hovering around the lovely […]

How Do They Harm Thee? We Can't Count the Ways

A prominent U.S. panel of scientists has concluded that not enough is known about hormone-altering chemicals to calculate their risks to humans. In a report requested by Congress, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences yesterday acknowledged that pesticides and other chemicals that mimic estrogen and block male hormones seem to be feminizing some […]

Canyonland crusader plays Mother Goose

Skip Edwards is in his yard in rural Crawford, Colo., doing one of his favorite things: crawling behind Chaco, the goose he lives with. This is pretty much his job these days. She waddles. He crawls. He wants to learn her habits from the ground up. Skip and Chaco — or is it Chaco and […]