Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
U.S. hunters, anglers weigh in on climate change
When people think of hunting and fishing politicians in America — at least prominent ones – two things spring to mind: 1. Republican and 2. Climate change skeptic. Former President George W. Bush, his vice president Dick Cheney and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin all fall into both categories.
But the hunting and fishing crowd — widely seen as reliably Republican because of that’s party’s successful portrayal of itself as the defender of God and guns — has also started to take note of climate change. After all, hunters and anglers are in the outdoors in pursuit of wildlife season after season, year after year.
But what may concern some Republican strategists is that many of them also accept the science of climate change, which overwhelmingly points to fossil fuel emissions as the main cause driving global warming.
This may help explain why Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina broke ranks with his party to outline a compromise to limit carbon emissions in a Sunday New York Times opinion piece he co-wrote with Democratic Senator John Kerry. Hunters and anglers in the U.S. South are widely seen as part of the Republican base and his call for action was saluted on Wednesday during a teleconference call hosted by the South Carolina Wildlife Federation (SCWF) and involved other outdoor groups.
“I have observed things in my life time that suggest that significant impacts have already been felt here in our state,” said Clinch Heyward, the 60-year-old chairman of the SCWF.
He noted that in a life time of duck hunting he had noticed a decline in the state’s duck population while Virginia, where one of his sons now lives, had more and more ducks.
Have Defenders of Wildlife lost key fund raiser: Gov. Palin?
Sarah Palin’s looming departure from the governor’s office in Alaska may deprive at least one animal welfare group of a key source of green.
The moose-hunting and ultra-conservative hockey mom shot to national prominence last year as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate on the losing Republican ticket. Palin, who in a surprise move said on Friday that she would step down this month as Alaskan governor, remains a political lighting rod who is loved and loathed in equal measure.
This polarizing profile has made her a major fund raising force for the Republican Party. It has also made her a focal point for groups staunchly opposed to her politics and policies.
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has been using Palin’s support of the aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska as a peg to bring attention to the issue – and also it seems to drum up some donations amid the recessionary crunch.
The home page on its web site says: “Help Stop Palin’s Wolf Slaughter: DONATE NOW”.
The seven press releases it has issued so far this year on its online newsroom have one main topic: Palin and wolf hunting.
I find it always intresting that the people who don’t live in Alaska or Idaho want to control what the citizens of that state does. Let me educate you on wolves. They are not cute cuddly things. They are blood thirsty killers with no feelings. They rip fetusus out of living cow elk and eat the hearts and then leaves the cow elk to die a miserable death. Now, it’s called states rights. I know that not everyone in Alaska wants to be a vegitarain. So, they kill to eat. What may I ask are they going to kill if the wolves wipe out the caribou, moose? Oh thats right just run down to the groccery store and buy a chicken or some vegies. Some people are so far removed from where your food comes from. You think that chicken just plopped down on your dinner plate? Mind your own business in your state.
Palin strikes back on wolf allegations
Sarah Palin has struck back at Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which is running a video accusing the Alaska governor of planning to expand the aerial hunting of wolves in her state.
The graphic video, part of the group’s “Eye on Palin” campaign, is narrated by Hollywood star Ashley Judd and has generated a lot of media attention this week.
Here is the full text of Palin’s brief statement, which was released late on Tuesday:
“It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising tool to deceive Americans into parting with their hard-earned money.”
“The ad campaign by this extreme fringe group, as Alaskans have witnessed over the last several years, distorts the facts about Alaska’s wildlife management programs. Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices which can’t be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations. Our predator control programs are scientific and successful at protecting vulnerable wildlife. These audacious fundraising attempts misrepresent what goes on in Alaska, and I encourage people to learn the facts about Alaska’s positive record of managing wildlife for abundance.”
“Shame on the Defenders of Wildlife for twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times.”
Let me get this straight. Palin is proposing a bill to shoot more wolves, so humans can kill the caribou and moose instead. If left alone, nature provides for a natural attentuation process that culls both the herds and the predators; and if, as Palin suggests, the population of Alaska depends on killing caribou and moose for food, maybe the real issue that needs to be addressed is human population control.
A first-hand look at trapping
Few animal welfare issues are as emotive as trapping. For some people it is a barbaric relic of an unenlightened past that inflicts needless cruelty on wild animals.
For others especially in places such as the Canadian and American countryside it is a way of life passed down through generations as well as a welcome, seasonal supplement to rural incomes.
Photographer Jessica Rinaldi and I went out recently with an east Texas trapper to take a first-hand look at the industry. You can see our story, pegged to the U.S. recession and global economic downturn, here.
Traps come in different forms and sizes. Many are designed to kill instantly; others to restrain an animal until the trapper comes by to dispatch them with a bullet or a smack over the head with a blunt object.
Critics would be quick to point out that things don’t always go according to plan; some animals drown by mistake while some have been known to chew off a paw in a bid to escape from a snare or restraint. And simply restraining a wild animal is regarded by some activists as beyond the pale.
Most of the five beavers which Renfro recovered while I accompanied him appeared to have died relatively painless deaths. But a racoon did drown by mistake in one of his beaver sets that weekend. Renfro would be the first to admit that these things happen but insists that he does what he can to minimize suffering; groups such as the Humane Society of the United States maintain there is no way to really do this. And so the debate goes on.
I do not think we have even begun to address the change that the population has effected on the earth. We see only our country, but other countries have a large increase in population and the forest is still being cut in many countries. I predict that we will see less people on the earth due to sickness and food shortages. I also believe that we can run our cars without gasoline or diesel and we can also run our power plants without coal or natural gas.