And now for some sadder conservation news

My last post addressed a hopeful development about a new park system in Pará, a state in northern Brazil. And today I'm posting about a more depressing story: Ebola has killed thousands of western lowland gorillas in northeastern Republic of Congo and threatens the species with extinction.

The area of activity is shown in the map, but the species (which is distinct from the more famous "gorillas in the mist" of Uganda, DR Congo, and Rwanda) is found all over the Central African lowland tropical rainforest, including parts of the Cradle of Our Fathers.


After a little research, I found that this development has been going on for a few years, but apparently it hasn't been as bad as it is now or commanded such attention.

Given the 90% mortality rate and continued pressures from habitat destruction and the trade in bushmeat, I'm fairly pessimistic. It is only a matter of time before the Ebola virus jumps to the eastern lowland populations, or, given our close kinship with gorillas, back into the human populations in the area. Especially if people keep eating them.

New park system in Brazil

The Brazilian State of Pará created nine new units of conservation in its densely forested and lightly populated north. Together, the new state and federal parks and “sustainable use” areas cover 16.4 million hectares, or an area larger than the State of Alabama or the United Kingdom. The Brazilian press notes that two of the motivating factors for the creation of the new parks are the hopes that they will prevent land invasions and frontier violence.

The new areas form the largest connected system of protected tropical forest in the world. The biological connectivity is augmented by the adjacent legally distinct indigenous areas, shown in light brown.

Imazon, the NGO I worked at last fall in Belém, does a lot of satellite mapping of the Amazon and assisted in the delineation of the new parks.

The brunt of deforestation takes place in the southern Amazon, so unfortunately this development does little to address the problems of land invasions, cattle ranching, and soybean cultivation other than send a signal that conservation is important, too.

While I’m not naïve enough to think that paper protection = real protected area + happy people living there, this is definitely a start. You can’t work to save something that doesn’t exist.

Cachoeira Santo Antonio, on the border of Amapá and Pará

and likely just outside one of the new state parks

Flying over the Guyana Shield at dawn

Recycling used cell phones

This is a random post, but I thought I'd share anyway.

I ordered a hands-free headset for my cell phone.* The package came with a mail-in envelope for used cell phones as part of Motorola's cell phone recycling program. The program pays for postage, accepts all brands and models, and you can even send in chargers and other accessories. It refurbishes and resells the phones, or recycles the ones it can't refurbish. Proceeds go to participating cash-starved schools, and you keep the heavy metals contained in the phones and batteries out of our landfills.**

I've kept my old phones, and over the past six years I have accumulated four, which isn't bad if you consider I have two Brazilian and two U.S. I'm sending in three.***


*Toolish, I know, but it is hard to talk on the phone while cooking or gardening. This way I can multi-task. I don't plan to be seen in public wearing the borg-like earpiece.

**I gather that Motorola sells/donates the phones to starving people in developing countries, thus flooding their market with cheap, old technology. The no longer useable phones in the developing countries if not given to someone else, are then thrown on the side of the road, thus contaminating their water supply and landfills, if any, with the heavy metals from the phones. But at least we've exported our pollution. NIMBY!

***One Brazilian is being kept for my eventual return, whenever that may be. 2008?

Solamente queremos estadounidenses que hablan ingles

The Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch made national news today with its passage of two anti-immigrant city ordinances. The first declares English the official language; the second fines apartment complex owners for renting units to illegal immigrants, among other things.* Both passed the city council unanimously.

These two measures are incredibly stupid and raise a host of constitutional issues. I don't live close enough to shop in Farmers Branch, but even if I did I'm mindful that boycotts can backfire.

Sadly, the anti-immigrant fervor is not confined to the Dallas suburbs, as members of the 2007 Texas Legislature filed a host of bills targeting migrants. The legislature appears to be continuing its fine tradition of hate and unproductivity. 2003 was the (extended) session of hate the Democrats;** 2005 was the session of hate the gays.

*Not surprisingly, an ordinance fining business owners for hiring illegal immigrants wasn't voted on, presumably because while they don't want illegals living in their city or speaking anything but English, they still need them to clean their houses, wait their tables, and mow their lawns.

**Once again, I would like to point out that but for the 2003 re-redistricting, Texans would chair four House Committees [Rules - Frost; Agriculture - Stenholm; Homeland Security - Turner; Science - Hall (he wouldn't have switched)].

Election reflection

I certainly enjoyed watching the election returns come in last night, and all day today I alternated between feeling smug and giddy. The events of the past two days only reinforced my belief in karma.

Yay gridlock; yay elected officials being forced to deal with the other half they don't like.

Despite my obsessive attention to the election coverage, I have yet to see anyone in TX remark how had it not been for the 2003 re-redistricting, Texans would be in line to chair FOUR House committees - Rules, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Science. But thanks to Tom DeLay, our pussy governor (to which we will be subjected to four more years), and the lackeys in the legislature, we've got no one. TX *might* get Intelligence, but only after Pelosi fulfills a grudge and then pisses off the Congressional Black Caucus by passing up impeached ex-federal judge Rep. Hastings for Rep. Reyes. My former employer and the ubiquitous crazy Houston rep everyone thought was my former employer will chair subcommittees, but that's not the same.

In local races, Dallas County is now officially Democratic. All but one Republican judge was swept from office (there was only one Democratic judge as of Monday). I don't think this is a good thing; I wonder if the staunch "elect Republican judges!" people will reconsider our ill-advised system of electing judges. Also, the D for District Attorney won an upset. Even the sky was blue this morning.

In other, much more important news, does anyone else think that Melrose is a total bitch? I know she's competitive and one of the best contestants and all, but what a beyotch. Now that Anchal is gone, Melrose won't be able to make any fat comments.

Also, I planted about 100 bulbs this past weekend. I should have waited two weeks, but I thought that cold weather was finally here. I was not expecting a high of 85 today. Now they are going to start growing only to freeze and die in three weeks. Great.

Bar results

Yay me.

Happy Halloween

Meet the Cameroonian Jack-o-Lanterns. The larger one wears a foulard and has a pierced nose; the smaller one drank the Castel all by himself.

In Dallas, I'm getting a few trick-or-treaters, all of whom look really cute in their costumes. I'm giving out Snickers, Milky Way, and York Peppermint Patties, all of which I like in case there are any leftovers.

These Jack-o-Lanterns were featured at my birthday party/housewarming 2 weeks ago. They have since gone to the happy pumpkin patch in the sky, which happens to be located in the compost pile behind my garage. I have a new pumpkin, but I forgot to carve it for tonight. Oh well. It will last longer.