Battle to Preserve Baja’s Whale Nursery Celebrated, but Threats Remain
"…. for there is no splendor greater than the gray when the light turns it to silver ." — Homero Aridjis, The Eye of the Whale Ten years ago this month, the Mexican government — under intense pressure from environmentalists — announced it was canceling a proposed industrial salt factory at Baja’s Laguna San Ignacio. The lagoon serves as the last undeveloped birthing habitat for the eastern Pacific population of gray whales, which were hunted almost to extinction a century ago and continue to make a tentative recovery. (Their Atlantic cousins succumbed to overhunting and have disappeared from the seas.) The sudden and surprising decision to scrap the saltworks was a landmark victory for U.S. and Mexican environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which had been fighting for five years to stop the joint venture between Mexico and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation. When many of the key participants in that fight gathered last week for a reunion at the remote lagoon, it was clear that ongoing efforts to protect this unique part of the Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve were having a profound impact. At game parks on the African Serengeti, humans go to view wildlife - but here in Baja, the wildlife comes to you. The gray whales were out to greet everyone, some 200 strong for twice-daily whale watches, exhaling a heart-shaped mist as they chuffed past the panga boats. They sometimes approached close enough for onlookers to touch or even rub the baleen inside their mouths. "A magical gift, transcending time," as Mexican poet and environmental leader Homero Aridjis described one two-hour visit on the water. Gray whales make one of the longest migrations in the animal kingdom, traveling 5,000 miles or more from sunny Baja to the cold Arctic, where they feed during the long days of summer. But they mate and give birth primarily in a few special lagoons along the Baja coast. The two other habitats they frequent have already seen considerable development, including a large saltworks. San Ignacio alone remains pristine. Had the salt project gone forward here, it would have meant a mile-long concrete pier across the whales’ migratory path and diesel engines pumping 6,000 gallons of sea water per second into 116 square miles of diked salt evaporation ponds. Given the many other threats facing the 17,000 remaining gray whales — from deafening Navy sonar to climate change impacts on their food supply — industrial expansion into this nursery would likely have proven disastrous. During the anniversary gathering last week, a symposium to discuss future steps for protecting the area drew a standing-room-only crowd of well over 100 people to one of the lagoon’s nine eco-tourist campgrounds. "This past decade has been a watershed moment in the way we lived and perceived ourselves," said Josele Varela, president of the new Rural Association of Collective Interests and one of a number of local community members from among the lagoon’s 205 families giving presentations. In 2004, lagoon residents formed an alliance with some of the 36 other biosphere reserves in Mexico to exchange information. These are sites designated for their natural beauty to foster sustainable development. "With this alliance, we’ve been able to learn new ecological methods," said Raul Lopez. New projects at the lagoon include oyster aquaculture and an award-winning effort to grow and restore mangrove forests. Such efforts by the lagoon’s six ejidos (communal land cooperatives) have been bolstered by the Laguna San Ignacio Conservation Alliance, which is also comprised of five outside NGO’s — NRDC, International Fund for Animal Welfare, International Community Foundation, Wildcoast, and Pronatura. "I think we’re about halfway to where we want to be, in terms of increased protections for the lagoon," said Jacob Scherr, NRDC’s director of international programs.The purchase of conservation easements now protects roughly 140,000 acres on the lagoon’s eastern side, he said. "We’ve also gotten a commitment from the national government to preserve about 100,000 acres of federal lands on the other side of the lagoon." However, as marine biologist Steven Swartz put it, "I think we need to remain vigilant." Mitsubishi and its Mexican counterpart, Exportadora de Sal (ESSA), still maintain the legal right to renew their proposal. A year after the saltworks project was halted, according to Scherr, "without any real fanfare ESSA renewed that concession for another 50 years. We became aware of this and are now in the process of trying to have it nullified." Mark Spalding, director of the Ocean Foundation, which fiscally sponsors the Laguna San Ignacio Ecosystem Science Program, adds: "The land conservation easements and other land purchases have been very strategic, in hopes of making it extremely difficult for Exportadora to revive the project. But future oil or gas development is still a real risk here." A proposal to improve or even pave the rough road that runs 37 miles from the town of San Ignacio to the lagoon is under consideration by Baja authorities. The local community would, of course, benefit from quicker access to fish markets and medical facilities. But many fear better roads would also increase the likelihood of development. "They want to keep the flavor of a wilderness experience, because that’s part of the allure," said Swartz. Scientists are also studying the potential noise impacts of construction, especially on the lagoon’s bird population. Swartz’s ongoing census of the lagoon’s gray whales found an increase during this winter’s mating and breeding season, from 193 at the 2009 peak to upwards of 260 now. However, the number of mothers with newborns appears to have fallen. And although scientists are seeing fewer skinny whales than last year, concerns remain about the gray whales’ food supply in the warming Arctic. Due to climate change, the tiny crustaceans called amphipods upon which they customarily feed at the end of their 5,000-mile-long migration have disappeared from the traditional sites, forcing the whales to range even farther north. "So there is nutritional stress, and some whales have lost all their body fat," Swartz told the symposium. Still, a decade after the saltworks was stopped, "the basic integrity of the area has been maintained," according to NRDC’s Scherr. "At the end of the day, you can never preserve a place unless you have the local people with you. That’s what’s been such an important part of the story of Laguna San Ignacio." Among the "friendly" grays this March, that was true cause for celebration.
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Sunny Claim on Solar Power Checks Out
Part of an occasional series. Read more >> The Claim "The fact is that every state in this country can produce at least 10 percent of its electricity from solar." –Bernie Sanders, Senator, I-Vt. ( source ) The Context The independent senator from Vermont recently introduced clean energy legislation (pdf) with the goal of putting 10 million new solar electricity systems and 200,000 new solar water heating systems on American rooftops within 10 years. Despite what critics say, he doesn’t think any state is too cloudy to benefit. The Evidence Utilizing rooftop photovoltaics alone, 10 percent of every state’s electricity sales (using 2007 numbers) could be met, according to studies from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Energy Self Reliant States report (pdf) published by the New Rules Project nicely synthesizes data from a study produced by (pdf) the National Renewable Energy Laboratory , which evaluates the current technical potential of rooftop photovoltaics. Besides telling us that one-tenth of each state’s energy needs could come from rooftop solar, this report shows that 15 states could, right now, produce more than 25 percent of their electricity demand with the basic available photovoltaic technology. Experts caution that we still need to develop other renewable technologies to meet America’s energy needs (including wind, geothermal and concentrated solar power), but rooftop solar systems could play a significant role in reducing the need for carbon-based fuels to produce electricity. A map on Page 10 of the Energy Self Reliant States report (Page 15 in the pdf) shows that Sanders’ confidence in the solar capabilities of each state is well founded. The Verdict The facts back up Bernie’s sunny claim.
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Sunny Claim on Solar Power Checks Out
Snow Job: Winter Doesn’t Disprove Global Warming
First in an occasional series. Read more >> The Claim "It’s the most severe winter storm in years, which would seem to contradict Al Gore’s hysterical global warming theories." — Sean Hannity, Fox News host "Historic snow storm in Washington — third this year — where is Al Gore to explain it snows this heavily as a sign global warming is imminent." — Newt Gingrich, former Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives The Context A harsh winter in Washington, D.C., has, predictably, been the source of plenty of Al Gore jokes. Many climate skeptics have held up recent snow storms as evidence that climate change is not actually happening. The Evidence First things first — weather is not climate . But the likelihood of certain weather patterns is determined by climate. What we’ve seen in the snow-covered middle Atlantic this winter isn’t just possible in a warming world, but it was actually anticipated. Let’s go straight to the U.S. Global Change Research Program ’s very useful synthesis report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States . On the subject of winter storms, it says : "There is also evidence of an increase in the intensity of storms in both the mid- and high-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere, with greater confidence in the increases occurring in high latitudes. The northward shift is projected to continue, and strong cold season storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent , with greater wind speeds and more extreme wave heights. " (Emphasis ours.) This report, it’s worth mentioning, is no partisan affair. It was commissioned by the second Bush administration, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program itself was established under the first President Bush in 1990. The results were presented last year after President Obama took office. Why would winter storms "become stronger and more frequent" in a warming world? Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters points us to a few key studies . According to the 2007 IPCC report , "water vapor in the global atmosphere has increased by about 5 since 1970." More moisture means heavier snowstorms, so long as it’s cold enough to snow. Which it still is in winter, even in Washington D.C. A couple of recent studies of snowstorm history over the past century bear this out. The Verdict Massive snowstorms can coincide with climate change. In fact, scientists specifically predicted that they would, and — most importantly — we say again, weather is not climate !
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She Runs With The Wolves
Laurie Lyman is perched in the middle of a harmonic convergence. A lilt of wolf song is wafting from a broken line of mountains in front of her, answered by a howling soloist on the flanks of Specimen Ridge, about a mile to the south. She is bundled beneath a layer of goose down, a hat with ear flaps, and footwear that looks like an astronaut’s. As she tries to locate the canid clans in her spotting scope, she explains in a whisper that the larger chorus belongs to the Druid Peak pack. "Let’s listen," she says, "and see if members of the Agate Creek pack reply." Lyman is one of the most highly regarded wolf trackers in Yellowstone National Park. And, at age 58, she serves as a lesson to anyone carrying an AARP card that real adventure still lies ahead: until six years ago, she was a grade school teacher in suburban San Diego. Now, says Rick McIntyre, a biologist with the park’s wolf project, "Laurie is a better spotter than I am." In fact, he adds, she is "one of the best in the world" in terms of her ability to observe and interpret the subtleties of wolf behavior in the wild. Hauling around a spyglass mounted on a tripod nearly as tall as she is, Lyman is out every day, logging her observations in a field journal. Each evening, she e-mails the day’s highlights to McIntyre and other researchers. Her work is unpaid, just a hobby one might say, but McIntyre and wildlife advocates consider it especially valuable at a time when federal agencies are struggling to fund vital research. On this frigid morning the Agate Creek pack remains elusive. But from signals emitted by the wolves’ radio collars, Lyman knows the pack is on the move, so she will be too. She’ll spend the next few hours driving her Subaru station wagon along an undulating road in search of the best vantage points for spotting wolves. From there she will record notes about who’s mating with whom, who’s leading hunts, which wolves are helping to rear newborn pups, and which packs are fighting with other wolves-or running up against other deadly predators, namely grizzlies. Last fall, when Montana wildlife officials allowed the state’s first wolf hunt in the better part of a century, Lyman realized that one of the wolves killed was the alpha female of the Cottonwood pack, a regular in the valley. With her deep knowledge of wolf behavior and pack dynamics, Lyman knew the loss of 527, as the fallen female was known, would inevitably lead to the death of others in her pack. What appeared on paper to be the death of a single wolf was in fact much more. "Her shooting and the subsequent loss of others have caused chaos among the wolf populations of the Lamar Valley," Lyman says. "After [527] was shot, her pack splintered," she adds, motioning toward the location of their former territory. When an alpha wolf is killed, packs are often left aimless or killed off by rival packs, she explains. Sometimes individuals disperse to establish new territories. Immediately after she noticed that 527 had been shot, Lyman sent out an e-mail alerting fellow wolf watchers and advocates. Her message intensified an already heated campaign to close the hunt. Hunters had taken out 13 wolves in southwestern Montana, surpassing the government’s quota of 12. The state suspended the hunt and resolved to revise its rules before this year’s hunt. "These amateur wolf watchers are giving us information that allows us to understand a bigger picture," says Lisa Upson, a wildlife advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which, along with other environmental groups, filed a lawsuit in June 2009 to stop the federal government from stripping the wolves of their protection under the Endangered Species Act. If successful, there will be no hunt this year at all. Lyman’s contributions are vital, Upson says, because they provide "a special kind of knowledge that doesn’t come through in government data."
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She Runs With The Wolves