climate warming

  • National Audubon Society Embrace of Ranching

    George Wuerthner

    The National Audubon Society has a program called “Conservation Ranching,” which promotes individual ranchers who practice what Audubon calls “bird-friendly” ranching. One must assume that Audubon is garnering some big bucks from individual wealthy landowners by promoting ranching or is just brain-dead. Livestock production is the most significant factor in Species Endangerment in the West.While…

  • The Real Contribution To Climate Warming Of Livestock Production

    George Wuerthner

    For years, I have suggested that studies conclude that livestock production (not just grazing) is one of the most significant contributors to global climate warming. However, the actual influence of livestock production on climate is obscured due to different accounting methodologies. In the most recent estimates, atmospheric CO2 level was 51 percent above that of…

  • The Good Fire-Bad Fire Myth

    George Wuerthner

    I continuously see articles in the media about “good fire, ” defined as frequent and low–severity. In other words, such fire seldom kills mature trees. These fires, we are told, mimic “historical” conditions, creating “healthy” ecosystems by clearing away fuels without killing mature trees. A “good fire” by happy coincidence reduces high-severity blazes or so…

  • One Hundred Years of Fire Suppression Narrative Challenged

    George Wuerthner

    Roberts Fire near Glacier National Park, Montana. Photo George Wuerthner  A few weeks ago, I attended a panel discussion about wildfires. All the panelists and the moderator suggested that large mega fires resulted from fuels that had attained unnatural levels due to a “hundred years of fire suppression.” The idea that fire suppression is responsible…

  • The Social Carbon Cost of Public Land Livestock Grazing

    George Wuerthner

    Public land livestock grazing has a significant social cost in terms of carbon emissions contributing to climate warming. Grand Staircase-Escalante NM Utah.  Photo George Wuerthner  An important paper was published in Environmental Management about the social carbon costs of public land livestock grazing. The paper Climate, Ecological, and Social Costs of Livestock Grazing on Western…

  • The Logging Juggernaut

    George Wuerthner

    Logging lodgepole pine on the Deschutes NF in Oregon. Photo George Wuerthner    Across the West, the Forest Service and logging proponents continue to mischaracterize forest health by the standards of the Industrial Forestry Paradigm. Under this logging juggernaut paradigm, any natural evolutionary agent that kills a tree, such as a drought, wildfire, insects, or…

  • Media Distortion of SW Indigenous Fire Management

    George Wuerthner

    Ponderosa pine in New Mexico Blue Range Wilderness. Photo George Wuerthner  A  new paper, Indigenous fire management and cross-scale fire climate relationships in the Southwest United States from 1500 to 1900 CE,  was recently published. Based on solid scientific research, it makes the important point that indigenous fire management was local rather than landscape or…

  • Rewilding the West and the 2023 Farm Bill

    George Wuerthner

    The Rewilding the West proposal calls for the restoration of wolves across federal lands. Photo George Wuerthner  The current Farm Bill, which Congress passed in 2018, is set to expire in 2023. Congress will undoubtedly enact a new Farm Bill. The Farm Bill provides an opportunity to incorporate the provisions of the Rewilding the West…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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