The Caribbean Climate

Leave a reply
Grenada, by Ted Lee Eubanks

Grenada, by Ted Lee Eubanks

According to the CDC, 19.0% of all adults (43.8 million people) smoked in 2010. In the United States, smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year.) In 1950 Sir Richard Doll published one of the first studies linking tobacco to lung cancer, and today 90 percent of the physicians believe that active current smoking affects treatment outcomes and that tobacco cessation should be a standard part of clinical care. The science is indisputable. People still smoke.

A recent study reports that;

This is a preview of The Caribbean Climate. Read the full post (1481 words, 17 images, estimated 5:55 mins reading time)

Dearth Day, or the Erosion of the American Conservation Conscience (Part 1)

Leave a reply

Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.
– Edward Abbey

A new HuffPost/YouGov poll reports that Americans are less concerned about the environment than in 1971, the year after the initiation of Earth Day. According to the article in HuffPost,

…the 1971 Nixon poll found that 63% of respondents said that it was “very important” to work to restore and enhance the national environment, with 25% saying it was “fairly important” and only 8% saying it was “not too important.” But in the 2013 HuffPost/YouGov poll, only 39% of respondents said it was very important, while 41% said it was fairly important and 16% said it was not too important.”

This is a preview of Dearth Day, or the Erosion of the American Conservation Conscience (Part 1). Read the full post (1563 words, 3 images, estimated 6:15 mins reading time)

Where’s Walda?

Leave a reply

 

Missouri

Missouri River at White Cloud, KS, by Ted Lee Eubanks


Audubon started west at the Missouri, as did Lewis, Clark, Long, and Fremont. The Missouri still delineates the humid, forested east from the dry, treeless plains. Hundreds of thousands of emigrants, traveling the California, Oregon, and Mormon trails, left the familiar here to enter the unknown. I decided to join them, or at least retrace their steps.

Mission

Highland Indian Mission, KS, by Ted Lee Eubanks

My work week began in Kansas. I sprinted around the state to meetings in Atchison, Great Bend, Medicine Lodge, Topeka, Fort Scott, Galena, and Baxter Springs. The weather remained vernally accommodating the entire week.

This is a preview of Where’s Walda?. Read the full post (1467 words, 8 images, estimated 5:52 mins reading time)

Pingo!

Leave a reply

Tim Cooper is the refuge manager at Anahuac NWR in Texas. Anahuac is situated on the upper Texas coast a short distance from Galveston and Houston. Tim has written a fascinating note about the recent appearance of Pingo, one of the whimbrels being tracked by satellite. I believe that Pingo is one of the whimbrels being tracked by Fletcher Smith and the Center for Conservation Biology. Great work, Tim, Fletcher, and the Center!

Whimbrel, Redondo Beach, CA, by Ted Lee Eubanks

Whimbrel, Redondo Beach, CA, by Ted Lee Eubanks

This is a preview of Pingo!. Read the full post (801 words, 1 image, estimated 3:12 mins reading time)

Out of the Bag, Into the Fire

Leave a reply

cat-bird

The birding community is aflutter about cats. A new paper by Scott R. Loss, Tom Will, and Peter P. Marra, “The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States,” suggests that between “1.4 to 3.7 billion” birds are killed by free-ranging cats each year in the United States. The report also speculates that “free-ranging cats cause substantially greater wildlife mortality than previously thought and are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals.”

This is a preview of Out of the Bag, Into the Fire. Read the full post (2204 words, 7 images, estimated 8:49 mins reading time)

For the Love of Birds

Leave a reply
Mangrove restoration in Jamaica by Ted Lee Eubanks

Mangrove restoration in Jamaica by Ted Lee Eubanks

Birders, and birding, have impacts. We spend money on travel (an economic impact), burn gas (an environmental impact), and, occasionally, wander off the path (an ecological impact). Birding is (and I cringe at the word) impactful.

The economic impact of birding is immense. According to the latest research from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, wildlife watchers spent nearly $55 billion in 2011, more than either hunting or fishing. Combined, the wildlife-related recreations (wildlife watching, hunting, fishing) generated almost $150 billion in 2011, around 1% of the country’s GDP.

This is a preview of For the Love of Birds. Read the full post (916 words, 4 images, estimated 3:40 mins reading time)

The Christmas Bird

Leave a reply
Jamaican tody by Ted Lee Eubanks

Jamaican tody by Ted Lee Eubanks

Dressed in black fatigues and a military vest, a heavily armed man walked into a Connecticut elementary school Friday and opened fire, shattering the quiet of this southern New England town and leaving the nation reeling at the number of young lives lost… CNN

We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law—no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society… President Obama in Newtown, CT

This is a preview of The Christmas Bird. Read the full post (272 words, 2 images, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

Adaptive Conservation

Leave a reply

Bolivar Flats, Galveston County, Texas, by Ted Lee Eubanks

I read the news today. Oh, boy.

Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could be between 8 billion and 13 billion metric tons (14.33 billion tons) above what is needed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius, a United Nations’ Environment Program (UNEP) report shows.

This is a preview of Adaptive Conservation. Read the full post (1359 words, 8 images, estimated 5:26 mins reading time)

The Descendants

Leave a reply

Old Harbour, Jamaica, by Ted Lee Eubanks

A new study led by Michiel Schaeffer of Climate Analytics details a scenario in which global mean temperature is allowed to increase to 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In this scenario the sea rises;

…between 2 and 4 m over the coming three centuries, while ambitious mitigation targets which limit warming to 1.5 degrees could substantially slow down the rate at which it occurs, resulting in a rise of 1.5 m by 2300, and possibly less than that.

This is a preview of The Descendants. Read the full post (884 words, 7 images, estimated 3:32 mins reading time)

Inscrutable Whiteness

Leave a reply
Reflectingpool

Washington Monument by TLE


The National Association for Interpretation (NAI), the professional organization for park rangers, guides, and educators, not to mention those who help you in museums, zoos, and the like, met in Hampton Roads last week. I presented, met a few friends, and caught up on the coming and goings in my profession. I hunkered with my kind.

I am white. Most of my friends are white. My profession is white. NAI is white. My recreation is white. White, white, white.

This is a preview of Inscrutable Whiteness. Read the full post (3147 words, 6 images, estimated 12:35 mins reading time)