Ah, Wilderness!

Somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico, one or more disgusting people are dedicated to destroying wolves – to slaughtering, murdering, extinguishing the creature who lived here before us and have every right to recover in some of their historic range. I can only hope that these idiots step in a leg-trap or shoot one another.

Another Wolf in Pack Killed

Alpha Female’s Body Discovered

By Rene Romo

Journal Southern Bureau

LAS CRUCES — A wolf pack in Arizona that lost three wolves in the last 14 months under suspicious circumstances has suffered another blow: the death of the alpha female.

Arizona Game and Fish Department personnel found the body of the Hawks Nest pack alpha female, identified as AF1110, Monday evening in the pack’s territory in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

No obvious cause of death could be found during a preliminary examination, and the wolf’s carcass was sent to the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., for a complete necropsy.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the 13-yearold Mexican wolf recovery project, described the Hawks Nest alpha female as one of the most consistent breeding females in the last few years.

The alpha female in the spring whelped at least six pups, which had weaned. The pack was one of three in Arizona whose territory was scorched in June by the massive Wallow Fire, but the pups managed to survive the blaze’s march through the forest.

In June and July 2010, the Hawks Nest alpha male and another adult male from the pack were killed in cases that are under investigation.

In April, a young male that had wandered away from the Hawks Nest pack’s traditional territory in Arizona was found dead with an apparent gunshot wound near Grants.

After her mate was killed, the alpha female had formed a bond with another adult male earlier this year, wildlife officials said. The remaining members of the pack continue to feed the alpha female’s surviving pups, according to Fish and Wildlife.

The wild population of endangered gray wolves in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico numbered 50 at the end of 2010, an increase from the previous year but still well below the 100 wolves that biologists estimated would inhabit the recovery area by 2006. Illegal poaching was the primary cause of wolf deaths in 2010, when five wolves were shot.

Federal and state agencies, along with a variety of conservation groups, have pledged a total of $58,000 for information leading to the conviction of anyone responsible for illegally killing a Mexican gray wolf.

We make a mistake accepting the cold, dispassionate scientific notation for these animals. Let’s give each wolf a heroic, noble name and report: Hero shot down by villain.

E-Force | Eco Electric ATV 

E-Force

Built in Ellicottville, NY the E-FORCE is the first all electric zero-emission, adult sized ATV with adult sized power and torque for extreme terrain. The E-FORCE ’s Torque on Demand electric drive system has more than three times the torque of similar sized gas ATVs!

E-Force | Eco Electric ATV

Also:

An electric ATV from Doran EV, the e-ATV

Bad Boy Buggy Models

I think these are a great idea, even for a tree hugger like me. Anyone have experience with all-electric ATVs?

ignore this

Over the years, I’ve had a few different pedometers. Most have been cheap. Some only count steps; some are difficult to calibrate. When I decided to buy pedometers for my wife and me, I did a little research, starting with Amazon.com. I chose the Omron HJ-112 Digital Pocket Pedometer .

I like the fact that with the press of the Mode button, I have the following information for the current day: total steps taken, total aerobic steps, calories (kcal) expended, and miles walked (to the hundredth of a mile). At midnight, the Omron rolls today’s info over to “1 day ago” and starts over automatically. Pressing the Memory button displays separate info for each of the prior seven days.

Note that the Omron is always on – there is no power button. The benefit is that you can’t forget to turn it on. I regret the continuous power usage, although it is minor. If only there were rechargeable button-type batteries or if the Omron drew its power from motion. Next generation.

The Omron clips to your belt, waistband, pocket, or earlobe (kidding). You can also easily slip the Omron out of its clip and carry it in your pocket or purse – it is just as accurate carried that way.

There is some evidence that walking as few as ten minutes at a sufficiently fast pace can have a beneficial effect. The current recommendation is to walk 30 minutes cumulatively at 100 steps per minute or more every day. That is not race-walking but it is more than a stroll. Three thousand aerobic steps per day is the goal. (With my stride, that’s about 1.5 miles.) Another goal is 10,000 total steps (any pace) per day. The Omron will help you track your efforts to meet these goals.

Note that the Omron counts a pace of 60 steps per minute as aerobic (below the 100 steps per minute guideline). However, because it tracks minutes at that pace or faster, you can easily see whether or not you’ve achieved 100 steps per minute.

Regarding calibration: You don’t have to calibrate steps per mile if you don’t care about the accuracy of the mileage indication. The owner’s manual explains the easy steps to calibration. I refined my calibration by carrying a GPS on several walks.

I’m not thrilled to endorse a product, but this one is good enough to overcome that reluctance. My wife and I both like having our own pedometer and it has definitely boosted our walking. I haven’t lost much weight in the four months I’ve had mine, but I have moved my belt in another notch and enjoyed the neighborhood a bit more.

Physicians and the police have no escape from their duty.

This article is the most difficult I have written and for the same reasons. My Gaia theory sees the Earth behaving as if it were alive, and clearly anything alive can enjoy good health, or suffer disease. Gaia has made me a planetary physician and I take my profession seriously, and now I, too, have to bring bad news.

The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth’s physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth’s family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics.

Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth’s surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.

Curiously, aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool’s climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable. …

Perhaps the saddest thing is that Gaia will lose as much or more than we do. Not only will wildlife and whole ecosystems go extinct, but in human civilisation the planet has a precious resource. We are not merely a disease; we are, through our intelligence and communication, the nervous system of the planet. Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe.

James Lovelock: The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years – Commentators, Opinion – The Independent

Almost two weeks ago, I accepted a big project from Wiley Publishing. I’m co-authoring a book on digital cameras and photography. The schedule is crazy — crazier than my Vista book, in fact. (If such things can be measure, it’s 4 times crazier.) I’ll report more about the project in a few weeks — when it’s over.

Immediately upon accepting a killer schedule, I left town to go camping. (Wiley knew.) Six of us went camping just north of Chama in a favorite spot. It rained several times every day and every hike ended in the rain — one ended in hail. It was green, cool, and wet, none of which New Mexico is right now, as the monsoon pauses.

The high point of the trip was having hummingbirds sit on my finger for up to a minute at a time as I held my hand over my head, next to a feeder. Pure delight — one of those top ten joys, though, I suspect, anyone could get the hummers to do the same with enough hummers, food and patience.

The second great thrill of the trip was sighting a magnificent hummingbird, both a description and the species name. The magnificent is two to three times larger than its cousins. Our trip ornithologist (we know how to travel) says the farthest north the Mexican magnificents have been reported is the Gila, in New Mexico. This female was way off-course.

There are pictures and more commentary, all of which have to wait a few weeks.

peace,
mjh

[cross-posted to all my blogs]

Not always free and not limited to RVs. You’ll find urban & remote spots. peace, mjh

Free Campgrounds for RVs