Here’s a link to another Washington Post story about this beetle, with updated information, which provides more evidence that the US Fish & Wildlife Service (part of the US Department of the Interior) is molding science to meet the needs of private industry.
The American burying beetle could be reclassified from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. (Lindsay Vivian/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Excerpt:
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service invited Wyatt Hoback and Douglas Leasure late last year to help it assess the threat farming posed to an endangered beetle they spent years studying, the two biologists jumped at the opportunity.
But the job did not turn out as they expected.
The two scientists say that federal wildlife officials pressured them to work on a rushed timeline at odds with what they saw as good science and to meld a meticulous map they made of the insect’s habitat with another data set from a completely different region of the country. The pair ended their work with the agency worried the government may use their research to unduly downplay the threat big business poses to an endangered insect, called the American burying beetle.
“It felt like the Fish and Wildlife Service wanted to conclude that agriculture is not a risk to the beetle and were going to use the data in a way that made that conclusion, no matter what,” said Hoback, a professor of entomology at Oklahoma State University.
The scientists’ brief stint working with Fish and Wildlife — lasting a little bit more than a month — came as oil and natural gas producers press the Trump administration to roll back 29-year-old protections placed on the beetle in 1989 when it was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Fish and Wildlife is currently reassessing the beetle’s status and is considering whether to carve out exemptions to rules protecting the beetle that add costs and delays to energy and agricultural businesses.
It also came as numerous academics who have worked with federal environmental agencies have complained that their viewpoints on climate change and other issues are being unfairly disregarded or dismissed since President Trump took office. The treatment of the beetle researchers may be another instance of what environmental activists see as the government putting science second to business.
This might seem fun for some people, but for us it’s not.
You see, Palawan is known for its non-commercialized islands and untouched beaches. There are only a few resorts in there, and the government limits tourism population there. Here are some pictures of our beautiful islands:
Nickelodeon, however, wants to capitalize the island of Coron, Palawan. They’re going to build a resort and theme park there. They claim that they want to “spread environmental awareness” but they’re really not. Building this resort will disrupt the marine ecosystem; thus destroying the environment there. Also, Palawan is our last ecological frontier in the Philippines. If they’re going to continue to do this, more and more big companies will cash-in to commercialize Palawan- and I really do not want that to happen.
I know petitions won’t do much, but at least we can prove a point that Palawan should not be disrupted. Please sign this petition, so that it will not only show that us Filipinxs don’t want this, but people from different countries as well. Please spread it around as well, so that people from different countries can be aware of what Nickelodeon is doing.
Ang aming kalikasan ay hindi dapat sirain. Maraming salamat po.
Gotta spread this myself. I’m Filipina and the conservation of home is incredibly important to me. Pollution is already a huge issue throughout the country’s cities. Many islands including Palawan are home to not just beautiful nature but some of the last of our untouched, uncolonized heritage.
wtf
NO. PLEASE NO. I LEGIT CRIED WHEN I READ THE NEWS ARTICLE. The article is in a legit news network. It’s not fake. MY CHEST HURTS AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY. The developers say it won’t hurt the environment but artificial structures are artificial structures. PLEASE. PLEASE. NO.
I CAN ONLY HOPE THE PETITION IS GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I SIGNED IT SO FAST.
EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT FILIPINO, PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST. PLEASE.
This is a horrible idea
We already lost Boracay to commercialism, please not this too. I want to keep my home safe and beautiful.
For the first time since 1941, anthrax has hit Western Siberia, with 1,500 reindeer dying and 13 Yamal nomads being hospitalized including 4 children.
This is because unusually high temperatures (it’s 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal) have melted permafrost containing the corpse of a reindeer that died of the bacteria 75 years ago.
Anthrax goes dormant when frozen, turning into a spore that reanimates when the temperature rises. Scientists estimate it can survive in this state for a minimum of 100 years.
In Siberia, dozens of herders have been relocated, a quarantine is in place and a state of emergency has been declared by the mayor.
This renews concerns that ancient viruses and bacteria could once again pose a threat, as the earth warms.
In 2014 scientists discovered that a Siberian virus, pithovirus sibericum, which lay dormant in permafrost for 30,000 years, became infectious again once thawed.
ifesbob 