Sarah Palin's administration has rejected a request to list an Alaska seabird as a state endangered species.
Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd said by letter Thursday it would be premature to list Kittlitz's murrelets because there is insufficient information to determine that their numbers have decreased so much that their existence is threatened, the requirement for listing under Alaska law.
Center for Biological Diversity biologist Shay Wolfe said the decision ignores surveys that have documented heavy declines of 80 to 90 percent of Kittlitz's murrelets in core areas of their range. The decision defies science, reason and the law, she said Friday by phone from San Francisco.
"For the Palin administration to claim that there is 'insufficient information' to conclude that the Kittlitz's murrelet is declining is equivalent to saying there is insufficient information to conclude the Earth is round," Wolfe said. (ADN)
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The Kittlitz's Murrelet is considered to be critically endangered by the World Conservation Union.
The Alaskan population was estimated to number 9,000-25,000 birds in 2002. Surveys in much of the Alaskan range indicate that populations have declined by 80-90% during the past 15 years.
Threats
There have been strong links made between this species's decline and areas of glacial recession (possibly as a result of climate change). Other threats include habitat degradation and repeated disturbance of birds owing to recreational and commercial tour-boat traffic; mortality in gill-net fisheries (documented in Prince William Sound; anecdotal accounts from elsewhere); mortality from petroleum contamination (7-15% of the Prince William Sound population died as result of the ExxonValdez oil spill); and a change in prey species abundance adversely affecting piscivorous fish. Near-zero productivity in 1996-1998 for unknown reasons may lead to further future declines. (BirdLife Factsheet)
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It's a pity this little bird is not as spectacular as the polar bear, but surely the species has as much right to survival as any other... not in Alaska, where there's no climate change, no endangered species, the Earth is flat, created 6,000 years ago and oil is king!
Links
Report from ADN
Data from BirdLife
Fascinating decision -- "insufficient information".
ReplyDeleteAfter the veritable blizzard of information regarding the danger of extinction to polar bears and beluga whales, and the documentation that wolves and bears should not be excessively decimated as per current Palin administration policy, it's evident that NO amount of "information" or documentation will suffice to halt the heedless, brainless, foolhardy policies of Sarah Palin.
And that's just regarding environment issues. Sarah Palin seems to apply her old "I'll do what I want until the courts tell me not to" adage to every aspect of her administration -- the W.A.R. appointment and almost-certain confirmation another example, possibly to delay, delay, delay the ethics complaints being heard just like she delayed Juneau senatorial representation.
(sorry if that's confusing -- I DID hit on a lot of different topics there, didn't I?)
Palin and the wingnuts cannot allow species to be listed as endangered because if they did so, it would inhibit their ideologically imprisoned predilection to burn baby burn through every available resource regardless of the consequences.
ReplyDeletePalin and other believers in the end times have no motivation to conserve or protect the environment, they see it as God-given to them to exploit. She and her enablers who obstruct efforts to transform from a destructive dependence on burning fossil fuels to a green (wind, solar, geothermal) economy are heedless of their responsibility for leaving future generations an uninhabitable climate.
Climate chaos and its attendant extreme and unpredictable weather - tornados, intense hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and floods, as well melting glaciers and ice sheets, sea rise, and acidification of the oceans - fits right in with the coming Apocalypse predicted by the fundamentalist convictions.
It figures that GINO is doing this.
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute bird...maybe I should forward this to defenders of Wildlife?
This is why she wants WARGINO so she doesn't have these pesky little animals in her way for "Drill baby drill"
I hate her!!!!!
KaJo,
ReplyDeleteIn the context of Sarah Palin's "thinking" you make perfect sense.
It doesn't matter how many issues you throw into the mix, the conclusion is the same: she's either serving her own interests or one of favoured group's interests, usually oil.
The environment, wildlife and any human beings outside her immediate sphere amount to nothing. (I'm not sure about the human beings... let's narrow that to human beings not called Sarah Palin.)
Reg
Nicely done Regina.
ReplyDeleteAlthough most Christians believe we are given dominion over the beasts, the End-timers simply choose to interpret that as "oh well let's kill it" ....
I consider stewardship slightly different than exploitation.
It perhaps should be sent to whomever adds animals to the Endangered Species List. I do not believe the State has dominion over the Nation.
And how interesting the right wing religious fundies interpretation of the bible always end up with them shooting/killing some living creature under the guise of "the word of god".