Daily Score Blog

This is fascinating. It's a hidden wildlife camera tracking grizzly bears in Montana. And this one captures 5 minutes of a single wolf harrassing a momma grizzly and her two cubs. By the end of the cilp, it almost looks like the wolf wants to play.

(It's the second most fascinating wildlife video I've ever seen.)

I'd meant to do a post about John McCain's bizarre fixation with grizzly bear DNA. The whole complaint is basically fraudulent -- and I'll write about it later -- but I got sidetracked by these remote camera videos.

Update 10/3: Well, I see my thunder's been stolen on this one. On the hustings, McCain has repeatedly used a $3 million dollar funding earmark for grizzly bear DNA as evidence of the worst kind of pork barrel spending. I was going to blow up this claim as patently absurd, but it's already been done by Bill Schneider at New West (and reprinted at Crosscut); and by John Aloysius at US News and World Report; and by Eric Olson at Scienceline; and by Coco Ballantyne at Scientific American; by the editorial board at the New York Times; and probably about a dozen other places too. But the best one may be this piece by Joel Achenbach at the Washington Post.

The upshot: the $3 million was an extremely cost-effective way to calculate grizzly populations in some rugged areas of western Montana. Biologists turned up more grizzlies than anyone expected: in short, the money revealed the suprising health of one of our nation's most magnificent endangered species. Now, officials are evaluating various "de-listing" proposals. Plus, John McCain actually voted for the bill. But whatever.

Mostly, I'm just bummed that I didn't get to use the title I had cooked up: "Grizzly Bears: The Other White Meat?"

Photo by Tom Smith, US Geological Survey

In my post last Fall on Rob Lowe’s plug-in hybrid, I argued that in the absence of a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, switching to plug-in hybrids might actually be worse for the climate than just switching to regular hybrids. I no longer believe that. Electric vehicles are winners for the climate in the Northwest.

According to a study released today by the US Conference of Mayors, green jobs "could be the fastest-growing segment of the United States economy over the next several decades and dramatically increase its share of total employment."

As the Seattle P-I reports, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, the conference's president, said the report makes "a very compelling economic argument for investing in the green economy and that we're going to get a huge return for it."

Indeed. The study cautions that these numbers won't be realized without "an aggressive shift away from traditional fossil fuels toward alternative energy and a significant improvement in energy efficiency." From the P-I:

For example, it assumes that by 2038 alternative energy will account for 40 percent of electricity production with half of that coming from wind and solar; widespread retrofitting of buildings to achieve a 35 percent reduction in electricity use; and 30 percent of motor fuels coming from ethanol or biodiesel.

"These are things we have to do," Mayor Diaz told an AP reporter over the phone, adding that "Washington [DC] needs to get on the train."

Amidst the slavering cries to drill pretty much everywhere, it's encouraging to hear the news from Oregon. The state's Department of Fish and Wildlife has just finished accepting proposals for new marine reserves -- protected places where Oregon's maritime ecology can thrive.

A coalition of conservation leaders has developed an ambitious and smart proposal. Now it's up to the state's elected officials to make it real.

Strangely -- and partly by reason of historical accident -- Oregon is something of a laggard in marine protection, at least relative to its West Coast neighbors. Washington has many reserves scattered around its inland saltwaterways plus the vast Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which extends out to sea from Olympic National Park. British Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii all have taken bold steps to preserve marine ecology. And California is now aggressively developing an extended network of protected areas. Oregon should too. After all, this is a state with a jaw-dropping coastal landscape and a population that cherishes it.

There are obvious environmental benefits to marine protection and some less obvious economic ones. If fish stocks are given a space to replenish themselves, they can produce more bountifully. And that can mean heading off disastrous fishing years like 2008. And that, in turn, means more tasty local wild salmon on my barbeque.

Apart from making a plea for my summer grilling, I don't have a lot to add here. Except this: a forward-looking approach to ocean protection could be huge. It could earn Governor Kulongoski a place in the pantheon of great Oregon conservation leaders -- making him an aquatic version of Tom McCall.

Media coverage from Oregon Public Broadcasting here, the Oregonian here and here; and a press release from Our Ocean here.