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Global Warning - Mar 19, 2009 - Printable Version
- Howl
by Robin Buckallew
January 20, 2009. A cold day outside, but warm in our hearts because of the changing of the guard. In Washington, it was all celebration as we ousted the old, scary, autocratic, anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-environment President, and greeted a new, popular President swept into office in a moment of historical glory, with a mandate for change. Change we could believe in. Hope. Yes, we can, we all can, if we all work together in a truly bipartisan partnership to lead the country in a new direction. The rhetoric was sublime. The spirits soared. The crowds cheered. Change was on its way, and it looked good, it felt good, damn, it WAS good. The new president made some glowing new promises, some flourishes that just had to be more than rhetoric, because they were so important, too important to foul up again, like they’d been fouled up for the past eight years. One of the crucial things many of us held onto was the realization that, for the first time this century, the government was going to be run on the heretofore despised principle of “reality-based thinking”. Our 44th president, Barack Obama, promised that he would restore correct science to the issues requiring scientific analysis. Science would no longer be scorned in dealing with issues of medical research or the environment. Soon afterward, Obama rescinded the previous president’s executive orders banning federal funding for stem cell research. We were on our way. Science was back in its proper place, being used as the guideline for making scientific decisions. We could all begin to bay at the moon in glorious celebration, expectation of still better things to come. Go ahead. Bay at the moon. Howl to your heart’s content. You may be howling alone, however, because it has now become obvious that, at least in some areas, science is still a spectator where they should be a player. In at least some of the most recent decisions, the scientist that is being consulted for making the decisions appears to be that most eminent, noted scientist, George W. Bush. Science, it appears, still has to play by some of the same old rules. Dubya had a phrase he was fond of… “Junk Science”. The literal definition of “Junk Science”, to GWB? Well, it was any science he didn’t like, didn’t understand, or didn’t agree with. “The Best Science” was another favorite phrase. This meant any science that he found compatible with what he intended to do anyway. It was on the basis of just this sort of “best science” that he decided, contrary to all scientific evidence, to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list, thus opening up the door for total extinction of this much maligned species from the state of Idaho, according to the desires of the erstwhile Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, notoriously not a friend of the wolf. It was this sort of “science”, no doubt, that persuaded Dubya to issue an executive order once again removing the wolf from the endangered species list after he had been court-ordered to re-list it. This action, of course, is totally in line with the imperial vision of the presidency so beloved of the late administration, the idea that the president is higher than the law, and in fact, is a law unto himself. This is merely expanding on the old canard of Richard M. Nixon that if the president does it, it isn’t illegal. Can anyone say “Dictator”? “Emperor”? “King”?
Upon entering office, President Obama immediately issued a moratorium on all executive orders that hadn’t yet taken effect, so that his office could study them and make a decision on whether to override them with executive orders of his own. One of these orders was the one delisting the wolf, and most of us breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, we had a president who would let the science guide him, and who wouldn’t put himself above the law of the land, deciding imperially who should live and who should die. The wolves would be once again protected, free to howl at the moon, pursue deer for dinner, and in general act like wolves are supposed to act, without fear of being gunned down from the air by a coward in a helicopter. The blood-covered snows of the frozen north would once again be sparkling white (except, of course, in the area of the wolf kills – after all, deer bleed, too). The ecosystems that have been so thrown out of whack by removal of top predators might actually have a chance to recover their equilibrium. Oh, yes, I was howling at the moon in ecstasy, much to the consternation of my closest neighbors, who find it a bit difficult sometimes living next to a crazy werewolf lady ecologist.
Now, word has come from the front lines. President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has given the administration’s green light to the George W. Bush executive order removing wolves from endangered species protection. State-sponsored wolf hunts begin in just a few weeks, at about the same time as breeding season, and it is expected that as many as 1000 wolves in protected parks around the country could be caught in cross-fire. Many of those killed will be pregnant females and newborn pups, who aren’t given any special consideration in the eagerness of the mass slaughter. Last summer, it was determined that the scientific evidence clearly demonstrated that the wolf numbers were not sufficient to save the wolf from extinction without protection, and since that time, the population of wolves in Yellowstone National Park has actually declined by 27%. Once again, science has been trumped by the action of another imperial Presidential order, in defiance of the laws of the land, in defiance of the court’s interpretation of those laws, and in defiance of the facts on the ground. Once again, we seem to be caught up in the same illogical decision-making processes that characterized the Bush administration approach to conservation. Why? For what reason is science suspended? For what reason is the wolf being sacrificed on the altar of commerce? I can tell you why…money. Like most other environmental decisions made in this world, this decision is being driven by money. Money talks, and politicians walk. And make no mistake about it, Barack Obama is, in spite of all protestations to the contrary, a politician. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be in the White House today. So, because of money and politics, we may soon be living in a world without the gray wolf. Dodo…Passenger Pigeon…Gray Wolf. Sayonara.
Well, I for one have no intention of just sitting here howling mournfully at a distant moon. It’s time to take action. It’s time for ALL OF US to take action. It’s time to write, phone, or e-mail President Barack Obama and let him know that we value science, that we value logic, and that we value the other species that share the world with us, many of whom were here long before we were. If you want to protect the gray wolf, you should make your voice heard by mailing your letter to the following address: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500. Even better, to avoid delay, you can call 202-456-1414, or send an e-mail contact at www.whitehouse.gov. The last thing we need is another imperial presidency that makes decisions based on bad science and based on bad politics. We need to make our voice heard. We need to howl. We need to howl so loudly that neither Obama nor Salazar can possibly fail to hear us. Yes, my friends, HOWL. Howl for all you’re worth. I CAN’T HEAR YOU! Howl louder…..that’s better. Now, keep howling until we’re heard round the world. The moon is a long way away.
**For those that would like to put a little money toward the cause to help those with louder howls, you can donate for this purpose to the National Resources Defense Council, who are fighting through the courts to try to keep the wolf protected. You can donate at https://secure.nrdconline.org/08/biogems_wolves_032009/nu1Ng7q1qiyH1?source=wolves_members
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