OR7, well camouflaged.
(Richard Shinn / DFG)

Oh, Journey, we know you are lonely. We know you have been searching for that special girl, maybe even from California. The search has been long—months long. We know you broke the pack rules, crossed the state of Oregon and then the California state border looking for love and made national news doing it.

But recent reports say you’ve been hanging out with the wrong crowd. They say you’ve traded in your lone wolf status and are hanging with … the coyotes.

I know they are fun. I hear them often, laughing and carrying on all hours of the night. But, Journey, you are not going to find that special gal hanging with those California cavorters. If you aren’t careful and officials see hybrid babies of yours and one of those coyotes, the California Department of Fish and Game has to kill them.

Are you listening, Mr. President?

The Obama administration is all ears—deaf ones—when it comes to dire warnings about drilling in the Arctic made by scientists, policymakers, international figures and celebrities.

The latest caution came today from the world’s largest and oldest insurance market, Lloyd’s of London, which warned that offshore drilling in the Arctic would “constitute a unique and hard-to-manage risk.” The agency urged companies to “think carefully about the consequences of action” before exploring for oil in the region.”

Also weighing in today was Dr. Jeffrey Short, the research chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for 31 years, who as lead chemist for both the state of Alaska and federal government, witnessed firsthand the devastation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and the Deepwater Horizon blowout two years ago.

The uplifting movie Big Miracle, opening this weekend, has the power to educate people across the country about America’s Arctic Ocean, along with the people and wildlife that call it home.

This is the same place Royal Dutch Shell is planning to drill in our Arctic waters this summer—with no viable method to clean up an oil spill in these extreme conditions. And President Obama has the power to stop them.

The entire global population of wild, migratory whooping cranes migrates through the tar sands region twice annually. (U.S. FWS)

The President made the right decision on the Keystone pipeline XL today. House Republicans forced the arbitrary deadline of February 21 and there was really only one legal way to answer. Since the State Department hasn’t finished its environmental review of the pipeline and requests for alternative routes that bypass sensitive lands and habitats are not on the table yet—that would be a NO.

Many organizations have done great work in educating the public about the dangers of the proposed 1700-mile pipeline and it has paid off. Earthjustice has been working to protect the vulnerable habitats and endangered creatures that are being harmed right now at the open pit mines of the tar sands in Alberta, the source of the fossil fuel that currently courses through two existing pipelines that crisscross our country.

Earthjustice filed a Pelly petition in September of 2011 with the U.S. Department of the Interior, asking Secretary Ken Salazar to investigate Canada’s destructive tar sands mining and examine how the mining is hampering international efforts to protect endangered and threatened species. The petition documents how tar sands mining and drilling in Alberta are harming threatened woodland caribou and at least 130 migratory bird species, including endangered whooping cranes.

Pika

You’re adorable but you will die if the temperature rises much above 80°F. So climate change is a big deal in your world, which just happens to be high mountain peaks. Who are you?

You are the American pika, a small member of the rabbit family that the California Dept. of Fish and Game has agreed to designate as a candidate for protection under the California Endangered Species Act (ESA). It’s the first step towards full protection in the state. The DFG is now seeking public comment on a proposal to list the pika as an endangered or threatened species.

Back in February 2010, the pika population was denied ESA protections by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Also, California denied a petition for ESA protections brought about by the Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice. The state reconsidered when CBD and Earthjustice sued in 2009.

There was more than the usual lurking going on Thursday afternoon in Lurker Park in East Hanover, New Jersey. More than 50 people turned out to protest the Obama administration’s fast-tracking of a proposed electrical power line that would bring coal-fired power to New Jersey. The protesters say we should be using less, not more, coal-fired power and new information now shows that clean energy solutions can keep the lights on in New Jersey.

The proposed power line, called the Susquehanna Roseland line, will run right through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The power line would connect coal plants in Pennsylvania to consumers in New Jersey. Earthjustice attorney Abigail Dillen was at the rally and, in this video, spoke to why conservation groups and local officials are opposing the project.

Alberta, Canada. Tar sands mining operations permanently damages the environmen with vast drilling infrastructure, open pit mines, and toxic wastewater ponds up to three miles wide. (Velcrow Ripper / Flickr)

Documents released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Earthjustice have uncovered strong ties between Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and the team of lobbyists hired to promote the pipeline’s approval at the State Department.

The documents provide evidence of inappropriately cozy relationships between State Department employees and lobbyists for TransCanada, the pipeline company. One State Department official cheered “Go Paul!” after TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott announced that the pipeline company had obtained new support for the pipeline. As the New York Times commented, these guys are clearly on the same team.

(Florian Schulz / visionsofthewild.com)

Update (9/15): Scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado confirmed today on a conference call with Earthjustice that the Arctic has lost the second highest amount of ice since monitoring began. Listen to a recording of the conference call:

We’ve all heard about the rapid pace of the Arctic ice and glaciers melting. The sea ice at the end of this summer's period of melting is predicted to match or beat the all-time record low of 2007 and one research group at the University of Bremen in Germany has already announced that the ice this year has already set a record.

Another ice-analysis team, closer to home, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, in Boulder, Colorado has yet to make their annual determination but is expected to within the coming days and offers daily monitoring maps to prove their point.

Earthjustice attorney Erika Rosenthal says the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice is important because “it’s a powerful indicator of the rapid warming occurring throughout the Arctic. This warming is causing an extraordinary increase in the melting of glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet that led scientists earlier this year to project a sea level rise of between 0.9 and 1.6 meters by the end of the century. For low lying communities from the Pacific Islands to Bangladesh to Florida this would be calamitous.”

Once upon a time, a valley known for being so fertile that it could grow much of America's produce came to be known for something else entirely: air pollution. The people of California's San Joaquin Valley needed help because the polluted air was making them sick with asthma -- at rates three times higher than the entire nation. Thousands were dying each year because of the smog, particulate matter, lead, arsenic and toxic gases in the air.

Because the people also needed energy to power their daily lives, Congress decreed that when new power plants were built, they had to be as clean as possible.  New laws, implemented and enforced by the EPA, made it illegal for these new power sources to create more air pollution that would harm the Valley's residents. The people of the land rejoiced because they thought their air would be cleaner while getting the power they needed to farm the land, manufacture goods and create a healthy economy.
 
But the story was too good to be true.

Polar bears are drowning. Huge glaciers are melting. Low-lying cities are worried. All because of climate change. But, when the eight nations of the "Arctic Council" meet next week, climate change won't be on their agenda—despite a frightening new report on climate change by the council's own task force.

Members of the council are those nations bordering the Arctic Ocean—the United States, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Denmark and Iceland.

The council deals with crucial Arctic issues such as climate change, black carbon, oil exploration and drilling, and arctic shipping. Their report, released this week, details how global sea levels will rise at least five feet within the century in large part because of melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Nonetheless, climate change isn't an agenda item.