| Memo to McCain: Pork Doesn't Come From Grizzlies |
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| Written by Samantha Hulkower | |
| Wednesday, 20 February 2008 | |
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Look, we like the fact that presumptive GOP nominee John McCain is an opponent of pork projects in the Senate, and as one of five senators not to include any earmarks in bills least year, he can actually walk the walk. But McCain really needs to cut back on the grizzly bear rhetoric. In an effort to brandish his fiscal conservancy, McCain has taken to the airwaves to let Americans know that he is serious about cutting frivolous government spending. In a new campaign ad, he promises that when president, he won't allow your tax dollars to be spent on wasteful projects. He lists several infamous federal misappropriations, such as the 'Bridge to Nowhere' in Alaska, Hillary Clinton's million dollar earmark for a Woodstock Museum, and, of course, a project to study the DNA of grizzly bears. McCain uses the example at many of his events, always with the same joke: "I don't know if it was a paternity issue or criminal, but it was a waste of money." Congress has allocated a total of $4.8 million to be spent on grizzly research. Projects being performed include a US Geological Survey project to capture grizzlies' hair, so that the samples can be used to establish a DNA fingerprint of the animals, and scientists can better track the animals left in the wild. With only 3 percent of the animal's historic population left in the lower 48 states, these bears need all the help they can get. Not surprisingly, scientists who study the bears are irked with the rhetoric. Comments (16)
  written by Andrea, February 24, 2008
I'm against wasteful subsidies too, but I think a better place of Mr. McCain to start is stoppping subsidies to the timber industry, the ranching industry, the mining industry, the fur and trapping industry, the hunting industry and all other industries that lead to the suffering of wildlife.
written by Samantha Hulkower, February 24, 2008
Hi Mark. Some responses to the points you raised:
-bald eagle populations were restored in part due to the banning of DDT (which was responsible for reducing the integrity of egg shells, which would crack during incubation), the re-introduction of nesting pairs into the wild, and most importantly, their protected status under the Endangered Species Act, which help to ensure a protected habitat, as well as the fund necessary to study and help the species flourish and eventually get off the endangered list. The bison that today are now roaming the plains are not, by and large, the direct genetic descendants of their ancestors from even 100 years ago. At one point, their population was only several hundred; today's robust population is due to their co-mingling with cattle. A study by the USGS http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/projects/bison_5NP.htm The article specifically mentions the limitations scientists face in managing the population due to the lack of pure bison DNA. "The non-genetic information that is available for NPS bison populations may not clearly reflect their historical patterns... In order to avoid drawing the wrong conclusions when considering conservation and management alternatives, it would be extremely helpful to have DNA level information regarding the genetic structure of these managed bison populations." Right here you have your answer for why it is important to have sufficient DNA samples of a threatened species. In one of the links in the my post to an article in Scientific American, scientists are quoted as saying they need to do these DNA analysis in order to determine current population-scientists have no way of knowing how the population is changing without this information, especially as the terrain these bears live in is very dense and makes visual counts incredibly difficult. I'm not quite sure what you have in mind in terms of storing DNA to help replenish future populations (you mean like cloning?), but I think you would be hard pressed to find a scientist who would say it isn't better to preserve a species now, rather than deal with the headache of trying to keep them from the brink of extinction tomorrow with technology. I hope you can see how this is a bigger and more important than generic wasteful government spending. It's about ensuring the survival of a species that not only has that right under the Endangered Species Act, but about maintaining the health of not only a population, but an ecosystem as a whole. written by dd, October 10, 2008
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Yeah, OK, we can be the change that we want to see in the world. But unless powerful people in powerful positions want to be that change as well, nothing's going to change.
So now, finally, there's a place where you can go for news and analysis of politics from an environmental perspective.
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Now if they want to collect DNA, Eggs and sperm to be stored for the future IF its needed to help restore the population, great do it. But more than that sounds like a waste to me.
Also I don't know if the status of the Grizzly population is on the rise or decline. Which would be important fact for your article. If its rising, more reason this is a pork "grizzly" project. Only reason I mention this because the black bear has been growing in population enough to find their way back to mid to southern parts of Texas. Parts of the world they haven't been in over 100 years. And guess what, they did it on their own. we didn't move them there they found it without us, They just needed help from the law to keep people from hunting them.