conservation
Saving Our Closest Relatives: A Benefit Concernt for the Bobobos
One issue that I have written about before and which I really wish got more attention is the near extinction of our closest relatives, the Great Apes. In particular mountain gorillas and possibly the Bonobo (pygmy chimp) are on the verge of being gone from the wild forever.
The main problem with saving the Bonobo is that, unlike the Common Chimp and the Mountain Gorilla, there are no big, well funded efforts to save them. Little of their territory is protected and no big names, like Dian Fossey or Jane Goodall, have ever worked to save them. So although they still have a larger population than the critically endangered (read that as almost extinct!) Mountain Gorilla, little is being done to protect them, so their population is declining far faster than anyone previously imagined. The Bonobo is one of the more fascinating Ape species. Many anthropologists think that the Bonobo, unlike the Common Chimp, does not use aggression to establish a dominance hierarchy but rather uses sex. Males and females will trade sex for food, for grooming, etc. Disputes often are handled through sex. Bonobos frequently have sex with pretty much all other Bonobos, and are thus bisexual. They are a clear example of how sex isn’t JUST about reproduction, but is also about social interaction.
Bonobo Conservation Initiative
bonobos | conservation | Environment
Lies That Began in Tennessee: A Boycott of The Tennessean
Al Gore has done more to publicize the real global warming situation than practically anyone else. Through personal presentations (one of which, through MoveOn.org, I was lucky enough to see in the presence of two approving climatologists), an Oscar-winning movie and a book, Al Gore has helped make people aware that we really do have a problem AND that there are very real things we can do about it.
Enter the right wing liars. A story "broke" purporting to show that Al Gore was a hypocrite, consuming huge amounts of energy while preaching to everyone else that they must conserve. Not surprisingly, this smear attack misrepresents facts and is, like most right wing statements these days, a bald faced lie. You can read some of the exposure of those lies here. The main thing left out by these smear pieces is the fact that Al Gore's family offsets their carbon usage with "carbon offsets," and that they get a substantial amount of their energy from green sources (see end of article for more on reducing your carbon footprint). Also excluded was the fact that energy use counted both domestic and business usage. In short, the attacks were one more example of right wing sleaze, reflecting more on the lack of integrity of the right wing extremists than on the integrity of Al Gore.
Well, turns out the origin of the attack on Al Gore comes from Nashville. And on Daily Kos a boycott of the offending paper is being called.
carbon offsets | conservation | Global Warming | right wing lies | Al Gore | Tennessee
