Trump tweeted that the decision to lift the ban on elephant body parts has been put on hold.
Even some of his allies were shocked by the decision. Overwhelming number of tweets by his fans imploring him not to drop the ban.
His tweet:
“Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts. Under study for years. Will update soon with Secretary Zinke. Thank you!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!!
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A well-oiled machine, this administration.
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lol. but thank goodness that this idiocy is “on hold.” I pray, for the elephants’ sake, that the policy reversal will die a quiet death. The consequences for elephants, if it doesn’t, will be dramatic. Devastating.
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Zinke’s marching orders are to repeal as many Federal Fish and Wildlife regulations, as possible. Fortunately, he and his minions decided to go after African Elephants, who retain worldwide conservation support. Zinke is only a player in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and other “outside border” legislation. It all has to go through Tillerson at State. Chris Dlugokenski
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It’s not just Zinke. My “charming” member of the House, Representative (not really representing us) Rob BIshop is quietly working to completely destroy the Endangered Species Act:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/11/05/powerful-lawmaker-wants-to-invalidate-the-endangered-species-act-hes-getting-close/?utm_term=.efa41dd4630f
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I will never understand the ignorance that some people with power are willing to display. Are we really that stupid as a species to think that destroying the environment and animals in it won’t someday have profound effects on mankind?
Our lives are dependent on the food chain and we are continuously destroying. The ocean’s animals are dying because of trash and bees are dying because of pesticides. Pollution levels are affecting our health in negative ways. It’s called “live for the moment’ and who cares about the next generation? I find this stupidity absolutely unbelievable.
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carolmalasia,
You asked: “Are we really that stupid as a species. . . ?”
I don’t reference humans as “homo supposedly sapiens” for nothing.
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Tells you how clueless this man is that he had no idea of the reaction lifting the ban would release.
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Good to focus on education again.
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This fake president has no moral compass, absolutely none.
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But I can think of one species of elephant 🐘 that well deserves dismembering …
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I fon’t Believe one word tRump spouts. May he implode all over himself.
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The following are estimates for animals hunted in the United States in the year 1988-89, compiled by Tania Hutchinson:
Mourning Dove 50,000,000
Quail 28,000,000
Rabbit 25,000,000
Squirrel 22,000,000
Pheasant 20,000,000
Grouse 6,000,000
Duck 5,200,000
White-Tailed Deer 4,000,000
Goose 1,300,000
Partridge 1,000,000
Mule Deer 600,000
Wild Turkey 350,000
Coyote 250,000
Antelope 115,000
Elk 102,000
Black Bear 21,000
Caribou 21,000
Moose 12,000
Javelina 10,000
Bighorn Sheep 2,400
Mountain Lion 1,500
Mountain Goat 1,200
Brown Bear 1,100
Wolf 1,000
Wolverine 700
Musk Ox 90
That’s 163,988,990 animals killed, in a single year, in the U.S. alone, by hunters. Unreported hunting and hunting of other species probably push this number up past 200 million animals, every year.
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Humans annual murder and consume the flesh of
0.97 to 2.74 trillion fish
58.11 billion chickens
2.81 billion ducks
1.38 billion pigs
1.15 billion rabbits
654 million turkeys
649 million geese and guinea fowl
519 million sheep
430 million goats
295 million cattle
70 million other rodents
55 million other birds (e.g., pigeons)
24 million buffaloes
5 million horses
2.4 million asses
2 million camels
656 thousand other camilids
543 thousand mules
2 million tons of game meat
17 thousand tons of land snails
Between 0.97 and 2.74 trillion fish and about 66 billion land animals (not counting game meat, snails, and insects) each year. The sheer size of such numbers boggles the mind. The mind reels. How do we make sense of numbers of this magnitude? Well, perhaps this will help: A million seconds is about 11.57 days. A trillion seconds is 31,688.8 years. Each year we are killing for food as many land animals as there are seconds in 2,091.46 years and as many fish as there are seconds in 30,738.1 to 86,827.2 years! But even these staggering numbers are low-ball estimates. They include only officially reported and recorded killing for food and do not include nonfish marine life, such as sea mammals (e.g., whales and dolphins), mollusks (e.g., clams and scallops), cephalopods (e.g., octopuses and squid), and crustaceans (e.g., shrimp and lobster). Furthermore, these numbers leave out a lot of killing that people do for other reasons, as we shall see later in this chapter.
From my book Trillions of Universes
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Mr. Shepard, I lived in Bristol Bay, Alaska for 7 years. Our protein was derived from salmon, caribou, ducks, and ptarmigan. We would kill for sweet corn, melons, and strawberries. Save your rancor for the true threats to our planet.
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The breathtaking rate at which we are depleting the world’s oceans led Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre to write a dire warning in the New Republic in 2009:
In the past 50 years, we have reduced the populations of large commercial fish, such as bluefin tuna, cod, and other favorites, by a staggering 90 percent. One study, published in the prestigious journal Science, forecast that, by 2048, all commercial fish stocks will have “collapsed,” meaning that they will be generating 10 percent or less of their peak catches. Whether or not that particular year, or even decade, is correct, one thing is clear: Fish are in dire peril, and, if they are, then so are we.
–Pauly, Daniel. “Aquacalypse Now.” New Republic. Sept. 28, 2009.
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Today, elephants, tigers, lions, white rhinos, and many of our closest relatives, including orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, are near extinction due to hunting and poaching. In fact, the Earth is now in the midst of the sixth largest extinction event in its history—the Holocene extinction. According to Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction, “Currently a third of all amphibian species, nearly a third of reef-building corals, a quarter of all mammals, and an eighth of all birds are classified as ‘threatened with extinction.’” Estimates of the current rate of extinction vary enormously, from as low as 100 to has high as 10,000 times the background extinction rate.
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In 1984, Katy Payne, who had studied music as an undergraduate but is now a renowned naturalist, was hanging with the baby elephants at an Oregon zoo when she noticed something unusual. “I felt a throbbing in the air near the elephants,” she recounts. The throbbing was like “how the air used to throb . . . when I sang in the choir . . . near the church organ.” Returning with some recording equipment, Payne made an amazing discovery: The elephants were conversing with one another, continually, in frequencies of sound too low for people to hear. Now, people have been working with elephants for millennia, but they had never before figured that out. Ms. Payne went on to make an exceptional career for herself as an elephant researcher and author. It was Payne who documented, movingly, the rites by which elephants mourn their dead.
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Mr. Shepard, my last comment. My fellow fishery management biologists have maintained the sockeye salmon resources in Bristol Bay for the past 70 years with accommadation for brown bears, eagles, jaegers,etc., Yupik and commercial and sport fisheries. The populations are stable, because of the superior management provided by the State of Alaska and U.S. and State protected spawning and rearing areas. Teach us to raise spinach with 2 hours of sunlight without a carbon footprint, and you’ve got an arguement.
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Yours is an unusual environment. But the toll worldwide is unsustainable.
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Locally wildlife populations can be and are sustainable. One only has to look at wild turkey, deer, waterfowl, etc. . . have been managed for well over a half century which allows for hunting, fishing etc. . . .
Vegans seem to not realize that they too must “kill”, “consume”, “use” living beings to survive. Just because the living beings that vegans destroy, in order to live, are plants and not animals, does not mean that the death and destruction of those lives does not occur. (purposely written to draw out sympathy for plants)
This is one area that you and I will have to agree to disagree on, Bob. That’s how it is sometimes.
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Every vegan with any sense understands that ahimsa is aspirational. It’s difficult to understand what could possibly be wrong with attempting to minimize the harm one causes to other creatures.
All we are saying is give peas a chance. LOL.
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https://www.fastcompany.com/3055260/these-alaskan-vertical-farms-grow-fresh-produce-even-in-january
The challenge for thus solution is cheap, renewable, clean energy.
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“The challenge for thus solution is cheap, renewable, clean energy.” …and the ability to grow a wider range of produce. Greens just ain’t going to do it as a full time diet. I also believe that there is evidence that native populations’ digestive systems are adapted to run on the high protein diet provided by a hunting and fishing culture.
You sound like a dedicated vegetarian, Bob. We obviously mismanage all of our resources, plant, animal, etc. Bristolbayblog has laid out how a sustainable system can be adopted for those of us who feasibly cannot adopt a vegetarian way of life. As a matter of fact, if we were all vegetarians there is more than enough evidence that we would (continue to) mismanage those resources as well. We are learning how to do better and perhaps someday us omnivores will all become vegetarians. Let’s hope we don’t kill off all the carnivores, so the vegetarians don’t destroy our crops. I know this argument is rather silly, but I am trying to point out that the issue is much bigger than whether we eat meat or not.
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My take on Trump’s reversal… he hasn’t had “enough attention and applause” recently so threatening this heinous policy followed by retraction got him
First – the attention
Last – the applause
Narcissism knows no logic or boundaries!:(
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Trump has Democrats wrapped around his tweeter.
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Ha ha… too funny SomeDAM Poet!!!
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Did you see the photo of Trump’s son holding the tail of a dead elephant? Apparently he enjoys trophy hunting.
I wonder how long tRump will uphold this ban on a species that is endangered? How much work is really necessary? Since tRump doesn’t read or understand much, I don’t hold much hope for him to do the right thing. I’d love for him to surprise me on this.
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I have corrected for the couple of typ-Oh’s in this morning’s POTUS tweet:
“Put Public School Gutting policies on hold until such time as I review all education facts. Under study for years. Will update soon with Secretary DeVios. Thank you!”
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Good one.
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This just came out from the WH.(How touching.)
…………….
President Trump Prays with Oklahoma Softball Team on Day NCAA Champs Visit White House
– The New York Daily News
On Friday, President Trump welcomed 18 NCAA championship teams to the White House and congratulated them on their success. At one point during the event “joined by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Trump bowed his head in prayer along with members of the Oklahoma softball team.”…
http://nydn.us/2zMr8fz
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So precious.
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“If Elephants ruled”
If elephants ruled the land
The tweeting would be banned
Cuz Twitter’s for the birds
In not so many words
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[SentinelSource.com] The largest-ever survey of elephants in Africa reveals startling declines
NAIROBI, Kenya — Africa’s elephant population has plunged faster than almost anyone predicted, raising startling questions about the failure to protect one of the world’s largest mammals.
There are now only 352,271 savanna elephants in nearly all of sub-Saharan Africa, according to Elephants Without Borders, a research organization that just completed an 18-country census. Between 2007 and 2014, the elephant population declined by at least 30 percent, or 144,000 elephants, the study found…
http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/wapo/the-largest-ever-survey-of-elephants-in-africa-reveals-startling/article_aef85e18-45ff-5caa-8d7b-7654631fc5db.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
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“Breitbart Fact Checkers”
Decision is on hold
I must review the proof
Despite what you’ve been told
The Brainfart site is truth
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This is a beautiful talk about the compassion we should all feel towards animals who can feel.
Modern Warrior: Damien Mander at TEDxSydney
TEDx Talks
Published on May 15, 2013
Thirty-three year old Damien Mander served as a special operations sniper and clearance diver for Australia. Whilst deployed in Iraq he project managed the Iraq Special Police Training Academy, overseeing training of up to 700 cadets at one time. Following three years on the frontline of the Iraq war he departed in 2008 with no new direction in life. A trip to Africa left him face-to-face with the horrors that the world’s wildlife is dealing with. Liquidating all personal assets acquired from 12 tours of duty, he founded the International Anti-Poaching Foundation. The organisation focuses on ranger training, operations and integrating modern technology into conservation.
Today, the Australian is a soldier-turned-environmental activist. He is outspoken about conservation and the nature of our priorities in an uncertain world. Damien’s work has featured in National Geographic Magazine, 60 Minutes, Animal Planet, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, Forbes, Sunday Times, & Good Weekend Magazine.
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