News Roundup

  • Chris Bodle has a public art project called Watermarks, projecting onto buildings throughout Bristol the projected high-tide level should Greenland melt.
  • Two of the more heavy-handed conservation techniques are transplantation and cloning. Looks like the former is promising (though still expensive), but Corey really doesn’t like the latter (“I’m appalled that this continues to be taken seriously!”). Setting aside the problems laid out (cost, inefficiency, low likelihood of success, etc.), I love the idea of cloning something like a T-Rex or a woolly mammoth. But is it so much of a stretch, then, to argue for the re-introduction of the passenger pigeon or the Carolina parakeet? It’s true it might not (okay, probably won’t) work, at least not yet. But I can imagine a technology that would be able to increase genetic diversity of cloned individuals. And, most importantly, I don’t think it’s a zero-sum game: money that would go to bringing back the mammoth will not necessarily be put to, say, protection of land. One major drawback to the potential for cloning is that it relieves the burden of extinction. What happens when extinction is no longer forever? I don’t think that captive breeding / cloning / transportation is a great solution to the biodiversity crisis, but I do think it’s an exciting technology for bringing back charismatic species we’ve already lost.
  • Who says fortress conservation is dead? They’re putting up a fence in Hawaii.
  • Chu says that California might lose all of its agriculture AND ITS CITIES due to climate change by the end of the century. Now that’s the kind of hyperbole that we need.
  • There’s a special issue of FREE on ecosystem services (funded partially by TNC). Here’s a brief run down in Science Daily.
  • There was a great article published last week in Science by Ana Carnaval et al. on modeling biodiversity hot spots. One of those classic “I wanted to do that!” ideas. (doi: 10.1126/science.1166955). It’s part of a special issue on Darwin and biodiversity that deserves more attention than just a bullet point. Fortunately, GEF blog is on the case!
  • Louis Ducos du Hauron created the first color photograph; Ulysses S. Grant defeated a soon-to-be-deceased Horace Greeley; Brigham Young was arrested for polygamy. And, in a remote corner of the Wyoming Territory, the world’s first National Park was born. That’s right, PBS nuts, cue up Ashokan Farewell — Ken Burns is directing a 6 part documentary on National Parks (“The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” is the official title, though I hear the working title appended “… or BESTEST idea, amirite???”) (Fine Ken Burns skewering available here.)
  • Newsflash: protected areas not so protected.
  • The Pentagon is buying land credits by paying landowners around military lands to conserve endangered species, which allows them to continue training on their own lands and bombing the crap out of cute things. This is explicitly being done around Ft Hood with the golden-cheeked warbler, but probably elsewhere, too. Honestly, I don’t think I have any problem with this (as long as it works).
Posted by Tim on February 9th, 2009 • • Add a comment
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