Radical Avenue

Hunters love the forest. Fishermen love the sea. These brave animals have shown a willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of conserving habitat for their species.

Rocky Mountain Elk
It’s no small feat to bring down one of these beasts with a bow and arrow. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s mission is to ensure the future of elk, other wildlife and their habitat. They protect and enhance elk country, support conservation education and restore wild elk herds.

Bluefin Tuna
According to BigMarineFish.com, bluefin tuna are in fact the toughest of all big-game fish. Capt. Jack Cashman of Toms River, New Jersey - who’s probably caught more than anyone says, “It’s like hooking up to a car doing 50 miles an hour… Big marlin are spectacular, but their jumps and acrobatics wear them out. Giant bluefin have more power and stamina than any other species. And once you’ve caught one, it spoils you for other big-game fishing.”

However overfishing has endangered the bluefin.

The species in the greatest danger of slipping into extinction is the western north Atlantic population (stock) of bluefin tuna. Thanks to 4 decades of overfishing, it has been driven to just 3% of its 1960 or pre-longlining abundance - a decline of 97% - as shown in ICCAT’s figure at left. (ICCAT is the international commission that claims management authority over all tunas, marlin, swordfish and the other big fish of the Atlantic) In comparison to bluefin, Atlantic white marlin abundance has been driven to 6% of its pre-longlining abundance, and Atlantic blue marlin has been driven to 20% of its pre-longlining abundance.

Ducks
Ducks have a little bit of everything when it comes to public relations. Disney uses them in cartoons, but hunters like to blast them from the sky. Ducks survive by finding watering holes along the path of their annual migration. Now if they could only learn to avoid those clever little decoys…

The vision of Ducks Unlimited is wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. Ducks Unlimited conserves, restores and manages wetlands and associated habitats for North America’s waterfowl. These habitats also benefit other wildlife and people.

hunting, fishing, rocky mountain elk, bluefin tuna, ducks

People are fickle. Some will find you cuddly and adorable while others will consider you despicable. These wild animals need an image makeover.

Bats
Bram Stoker’s Dracula first began terrifying us in 1897, and a long string of vampire movies followed. Actually there are just three species of vampire bats in the world and they all live in Latin America. Many bats help out farmers by feasting nightly on crop eating insects. But the spooky, blood sucking stereotype seems to never die.

Bat Conservation International is devoted to conservation, education, and research initiatives involving bats and the ecosystems they serve.

Rhinoceros
We know rhinoceros as hard headed, easily agitated animals who like to charge straight ahead. With large horns on their foreheads, these guys are definitely not the soft and cuddly type. But that testosterone laden image got them a company logo gig with Rhino linings. So if you need spray on protection for your pickup truck bed, look for the Rhino. It’s not the same as having a malt liquor or muscle car named after you, but it’s a start.

The International Rhino Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the worldwide conservation of the five living species of rhinoceros: Black, White, Indian, Javan and Sumatran.

Sharks
Peter Benchley agonized over the role Jaws played in contributing to the shark hunting frenzy of the 1970’s.

The Shark Research Institute (SRI) works to correct misperceptions about sharks and stop the slaughter of 100 million sharks annually. A primary conservation strategy of SRI is creating value for sharks as sustainable natural resources for tourism industries, particularly in developing countries.

Flying Lemur
These odd, nocturnal creatures glide across treetops in the jungle but haven’t yet built a strong following in the human world.

bats, Dracula, vampires, rhinoceros, sharks, flying lemur

Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel has proposed a national referendum through his nonprofit organization The National Initiative for Democracy. This organization supports a constitutional amendment which would allow voters to directly enact legislation. Their website describes such a referendum as a new check in our system of checks and balances. Indeed.

The Coalition for National Referendum also promotes popular democracy. It has distributed a petition for a national advisory referendum on establishing a national popular vote for President of the United States. The coalition cites successful national referendums in Canada, England, France and South Africa.

A national referendum would:

• Allow voters to make the difficult decisions that politicians ignore. For example, most Americans want a new direction in Iraq but Congress is paralyzed. We need energy independence but it always seems to be around the corner.

• Get Americans more directly involved in their government. As it is now, we elect representatives and hope that they govern in accordance with our wishes. Since a ballot measure can’t change its mind, voters know exactly what they are supporting.

• Thwart self serving lawmakers. Politicians are lousy at policing themselves. Voters should establish work schedules and ethical standards.
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Like many other nations, Brazil faced an energy crisis in the 1970’s. Unlike the others however, Brazil had the foresight to establish a long term strategy for eliminating their countries’ dependence on foreign oil.

Brazil has now achieved energy independence through a decade’s long effort to develop alternative energy sources. They dramatically boosted production of ethanol from sugar cane. Brazilian service stations were retrofitted. And since 2003 automakers have been selling “flex fuel” cars, which run on either ethanol or gasoline. Now Brazil doesn’t depend on the Arab world for energy and doesn’t involve itself in the politics of Arab countries.

The United States could have obtained energy independence by now as well, but our politics won’t allow it. We’re lousy at implementing long term solutions. Our presidents have a tendency to cast aside programs initiated by previous administrations and Congress is constantly tinkering with agency budgets. You can’t move in a straight line while changing directions every four years.
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It’s hard to match the public relations skills of warm blooded animals, but don’t underestimate the ability of egg laying creatures to capture the human imagination. Human’s being the soft hearted types, we’ll even fall in love with cold blooded beasts. You may have seen some of these critters at the mall.

Parrots
The Rare Species Conservatory Foundation and the Dominican government have partnered to research Dominica’s Sisserou and Jaco parrots, and to conserve the Sisserou, Dominica’s national bird, rarest of all Amazon parrots, and flagship species for the eastern Caribbean’s largest, intact oceanic rain forest ecosystem.

Blue Iguanas
The Blue Iguana Recovery Program is a partnership of local and international conservation groups, who share a commitment to ensure the survival of the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana. In addition to these long-term partners, the Program is extremely fortunate in receiving financial and volunteer support from local and international corporations, along with service clubs, local government agencies, and many private individuals.

Turtles
It is the mission of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation to ensure the survival of sea turtles within the Wider Caribbean basin and Atlantic through research, education, training, advocacy and the protection of the natural habitats upon which they depend.

Turtles are also protected on the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos Conservancy, formerly known as the Charles Darwin Foundation, Inc., advocates for the lasting protection of the Galapagos Islands through programs of constituency building, education, and fund raising in North America.

Peregrine Falcons
The Peregrine Fund works nationally and internationally, to conserve birds of prey in nature. They conserve nature by restoring species in jeopardy, conserving habitat, educating students, training conservationists, providing factual information to the public, and by accomplishing good science. They succeed through cooperation and hard-work, using common sense, being hands-on and non-political, and by emphasizing solutions.

Parrots, Rare Species Conservatory Foundation, Blue Iguanas, Blue Iguana Recovery Program, Turtles, Caribbean Conservation Corporation, Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin Foundation, Peregrine Falcons, The Peregrine Fund

I wonder if dolphins hate drift nets as much as manatees hate unguarded boat propellers. By now every other species on the planet must despise at least one human invention. It’s fortunate that some of our wild friends have powerful advocacy groups looking out for their interests. These animals, for example, have all their ducks in a row when it comes to public relations:

Chimpanzees
The objectives of the Jane Goodall Institute are to:
• Increase primate habitat conservation
• Increase awareness of, support for and training in issues related to our relationship with each other, the environment and other animals (leading to behavior change)
• Expand non-invasive research programs on chimpanzees and other primates
• Promote activities that ensure the well-being of chimpanzees, other primates and animal welfare activities in general

Koalas
The Australian Koala Foundation has no trouble generating positive publicity for these cuddly creatures.

Whales
The American Cetacean Society protects whales, dolphins, porpoises, and their habitats through education, conservation, & research. The Cousteau Society also promotes oceanic conservation and research.

Red Pandas
The Red Panda Project educates and empowers local communities to serve as active partners in the conservation of wild red pandas and their habitat.

Wild Horses
The Wild Horse Sanctuary’s mission is to protect and preserve America’s wild horses as a “living national treasure” in a publicly accessible and ecologically balanced environment with other wildlife for future generations.

Bears
Ursus International Conservation Institute is dedicated to the conservation of bears and their habitat. Ursus seeks to assist in creating a sympathetic and informed attitude towards bears that is based on an understanding of the critical situations facing their populations.

Lions
You can read the latest on lion conservation at the Lion Guardians blog.

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The Caribbean Manatee had a sweet life three hundred years ago. Back then, Blackbeard and the other pirates bandied about in noisy sailing ships like sloops, brigantines and schooners. A manatee could survive a bump from one of these vessels. And the sailors were mostly harmless, except for the lackeys who dreamt of falling in love with a mermaid.

Then someone invented the outboard motor and everything changed for our manatee friends. When a slow swimming mammal collides with the propeller of a cruising speed boat, it usually results in major trauma for the lumbering mammal. So manatees now swim in troubled waters.

It didn’t exactly require a scientific breakthrough for engineers to fit a cage around the propeller of an outboard motor. Propeller guards have been on the market for years. Our state and federal governments should take better advantage of this important safety innovation.

SPIN, an advocacy group dedicated to preventing propeller strikes, has petitioned the Coast Guard, which regulates recreational boats and equipment. The Coast Guard has requested public comment. In the meantime, that manatee surfacing underneath your boat might actually be a young swimmer or a disoriented diver.

The most recent Coast Guard reports indicate that approximately 30 to 45 people were killed annually and approximately 185 to 265 were injured per year from 2001 to 2004 from propeller strike accidents. Since the Coast Guard doesn’t count unreported boating accidents, the actual numbers could be much higher.

Congress should consider requiring some type of propeller guard on all new boats. It should offer property tax incentives. At the very least a more robust public information campaign would seem to be in order. When we have the technology to improve public safety we should expect our leaders to make use of it.

manatees, pirates, mermaids, propeller strikes, propeller guards, boat propellers, outboard motors, Coast Guard, boat safety, Congress, SPIN

Our country gives presidents too much freedom to govern according to their own agenda. We place more constraints on the chief executives of our states than we place on the chief executive of the country. Governors don’t just deal with state legislatures. They must also work within the framework of laws established through the referendum process.

Ballot initiatives give state voters a chance to directly intervene in everything from school funding to stem cell research. But we have no referendum at the federal level. And this affords the president and Congress tremendous leeway in establishing national priorities.

Lately Democrats and Republicans have taken to offering a vastly different set of plans for the country. When control of Congress switches, funding for various agencies changes dramatically. Some programs get dropped or lose their funding. There’s no continuity. Long term strategies have no chance in this environment.
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Armies have fought wars over small strips of land for centuries in the Middle East. Battles seem to break out in an instance while lasting peace agreements take years to develop. Iraq won’t become a stable democracy any time soon. The civil war of the 1980’s in Lebanon continued for over ten years. The United States has a limited ability to determine the final outcome in Iraq at this point.

The entire world now knows that we did not have an effective long term plan for establishing a stable, representative government in Iraq. Our leaders expected to get in and out within a few hundred days. But we’ve always done nation building in the past, why would anyone expect Iraq to be any different?

Given the longstanding animosity between political factions in the region, a more prudent pre-War plan would have included laying the groundwork for 20 years of intense political negotiations. We should have prepared our diplomatic corps for an extraordinarily challenging assignment and set aside enough money for the job. But we didn’t do any of that.

The US election cycle doesn’t lend itself to long term planning. Newly elected presidents know that they have only eight years at the most to make an impression. So they sometimes pursue a highly ambitious agenda and end up leaving behind a mess for the next administration to clean up.
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Incumbents rule the roost in this country. Every ten years, state legislatures get to map out their own Congressional districts. And these maps are carefully drawn to maintain the status quo. The people in charge want to stay in charge and this is how it’s done. The practice is also known as gerrymandering, but by any name it’s a lousy deal for voters.

In the 2004 election in California, not one seat in the state legislature changed hands. Every district represented by a Democrat before the election is still represented by a Democrat now, and every district with a Republican representative prior to 2004 still has a Republican representative today. True competition does not exist in California politics.

In other states, one party with a clear majority sometimes draws the electoral map so that they can pick up a few more seats. The goal is never to make races more competitive or voting districts more diverse. It’s all about winning and staying in power. And the voters always lose. Why vote when you already know the outcome of every race? Congressional districts should be drawn along county lines.
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Extreme partisanship makes governing difficult in the United States. Every issue becomes part of a zero sum game. One side doesn’t win unless the other side loses and lawmakers end up bragging about legislation that didn’t get passed.

The never ending election cycle is partly to blame for this excessive partisanship. Politicians believe that they must constantly raise money for their political campaigns, so they have increasingly less time to do what we pay them to do.

Twenty four hour cable news stations and modern media don’t help either. High drama brings in the ratings and in politics that means sharp contrasts and an argumentative tone. Who wants to watch people working toward a compromise? It’s boring. There’s a reason C-SPAN is not at the top of many viewing lists.

Another problem we have in our country is the dominance of two political parties. In virtually every legislative district in the country there will be only two viable candidates in the next election, a Democrat and a Republican.
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When Barack Obama talks about the politics of hope, he’s appealing to the basic optimism of the American people. Our country’s economy and worldwide political influence have been on the rise for over a century. American students attend some of the finest universities on the planet. We have long coastlines on two oceans, friendly neighbors, natural resources and unprecedented prosperity. In short we have much to be thankful for. That’s why we like positive, self confident presidential candidates.

After World War II the United States helped our former adversaries Germany and Japan recover. As a result, two nations that were once mortal enemies are now strong allies. So we have reasons to feel optimistic about our ability to positively influence other countries.

In the last three decades we’ve also seen an end to the Cold War. Now democracy has replaced totalitarianism as the established form of government in countries across Eastern Europe and all throughout Asia and the Americas. Given these hopeful signs, we need a forward thinking president who will build on our recent foreign policy accomplishments.
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Experience is overrated. Politicians who like to crow about their experience tend to believe that they have all the answers. We live in a rapidly changing world. Relying on cold war solutions to deal with new challenges is leading us down a dead end street. Our country should spend more time supporting burgeoning democracies and less time picking fights with poor countries.

Dick Cheney had plenty of experience when he became Vice President. He had previously served our country in Congress, as White House Chief of Staff and as the Secretary of Defense. All of this experience seems to have left him with a shoot first, ask questions later mentality.

In 2002, Vice President Cheney told America that there was no doubt that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Actually, contrary to Cheney’s assertions, Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction in 2002. In early 2003, Cheney ridiculed weapons inspectors who failed to find any such weapons. So Iraq posed no threat to the United States when we invaded. Cheney’s “experience” hasn’t helped our country.

America needs a president who exercises good judgment in critical situations. Barack Obama made the correct judgment when he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning. Obama also has a smarter plan for dealing with Iran.
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News Flash: Hillary Clinton had a plant ask her friendly questions at a recent campaign event.

Fern: As a plant, I’m concerned about the environment. Can you tell me about your policy on global warming?
Senator Clinton: It’s funny you should ask that. I was just thinking I hope someone asks me a question about global climate change. As you know global warming isn’t just a lot of hot air with me. I’ve developed concrete plans for making this a greener planet and I’ll be sharing those plans with you over the next few months. Yes, you in the purple coat.

Violet: What can you say to assure me that as president, you will respect the other branches of government?
Ms. Clinton: I certainly understand President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq without a declaration of war from Congress. After all, he had those troops in Kuwait with nothing better to do. But I can also understand why Congress would want to be consulted prior to the invasion of a sovereign nation. That’s why I’ve always maintained a consistent position on this issue. You have a question, the slender man in the back.
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Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction in 2002. We went in anyway and created a big mess. At this point our country needs to salvage whatever we can from this colossal strategic blunder. That means we need to start playing to our strengths.

We should focus our efforts on developing better relations between two groups that apparently still trust us; Turkey and the Kurds. While the Turks and the Kurds have historically been antagonistic towards each other, they each have much to gain from a lasting peace agreement. And since Turkey is a NATO ally, we can enlist our other NATO allies to assist in the negotiations.

The United States needs positive news from Iraq. A peace agreement between Turkey and the Kurds would help us in several ways:
- It would improve our standing in the region and place the US in a favorable light in a Muslim country for a change.
- It would allow us to honorably withdraw our troops from northern Iraq.
- It would strengthen Turkey, a key NATO ally.

Turkey would also benefit greatly from a lasting peace treaty with the Kurds of northern Iraq.
- It would provide stability in their country and on their southern border.
- It would solidify their standing as a peaceful, stable democracy.
- It would allow them to move beyond old feuds, just as they have with other neighbors.
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