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They used to be on the side of the whales and the valuable work of Sea Shepherd Society.  Now, under pressure from Japan, Australia is making it harder to do the work of saving whales.

Related articles

• Blow to whaling campaign: Sea Shepherd pilot denied visa (smh.com.au)
• Nisshin Maru on the move (smh.com.au)
• Japan whalers take Sea Shepherd activists to court – Reuters India (in.reuters.com)

Greenpeace tracks down the connection between Senator Murkowski and polluter lobbyists – keeping company with “dirty air” companies.

Senator Murkowski continues dirty air affair with polluter lobbyistsSenator Murkowski announced yesterday she plans to introduce legislation to weaken upcoming safeguards that would protect Americans from mercury pollution and other dangerous emissions from coal fired power plants. Those mercury safeguards, which are expected to be announced within the next week, would save thousands of lives and prevent tens of thousands of illnesses every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.It’s always dismaying to see an elected official working on behalf of corporate polluters at the expense of people’s health and vulnerable communities, but it isn’t too surprising in Murkowski’s case. Almost two years ago, Murkowski was caught letting Jeffrey Holmstead, a coal industry lobbyist at Bracewell & Giuliani, help write legislation attacking the Clean Air Act. This latest effort to weaken the Clean Air Act’s mercury protections is just more of the same from Murkowski.

via Greenpeace

Hear from activists in Durbin, South Africa on the status of climate change talks.

Room for Progress: CI’s Dispatches from Durban (Sarshen Marais) – Conservation International (CI)

www.conservation.org Sarshen Marais is currently attending the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa. Drawing on CI’s field experience and scientific and policy expertise, sta…

Room for Progress: CI’s Dispatches from Durban (Preeya Rampersaud) – Conservation International (CI)

www.conservation.org CI Guyana’s Preeya Rampersaud discusses the benefits of REDD+ for high forest low deforestation countries, such as her developing country of Guyana. Drawing on CI’s field experience and scientific and policy expertise, staff memb…

Room for Progress: CI’s Dispatches from Durban (Tessa Mildenhall) – Conservation International (CI)

www.conservation.org www.conservation.org Conservation South Africa’s (CSA) Tessa Mildenhall talks about the visitors stopping by the CI CSA exhibition in the Durban convention center. Drawing on CI’s field experience and scientific and policy expert…

Room for Progress: CI’s Dispatches from Durban (Milagros Sandoval) – Conservation International (CI)

www.conservation.org CI Peru’s Milagros Sandoval discusses the progress on institutional arrangements and capacity building for indigenous peoples’ natural resources and indigenous rights. Drawing on CI’s field experience and scientific and policy ex…

Related articles

• U.N. Durban Climate Talks (buzzworm.org)
• South Africa says climate deal took delicate touch (seattlepi.com)
• Durban UN Climate Conference Ends with Mostly Talk, No Action (israelnationalnews.com)

Greening Latin America: Investing in Nature for a Sustainable Future | Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog of The Nature ConservancyWritten by Brad Parker Published on December 13th, 2011 | Discuss This Article Mark Tercek is the president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. In the recent past, sugarcane growers and conservationists may have seemed unlikely allies.

via Nature

The new Latin American Water Funds Partnership will significantly expand a successful model we developed in Quito, Ecuador, in 2000, through which utility companies, breweries and other downstream users voluntarily provide funding for the conservation of forests and watersheds upstream. Read more…

This is just an unbelievable place.

Olympic National Park: One of the wildest places left in the USA [36 PICS]Olympic National Park in Washington offers a bit of everything for nature lovers, hikers and adventurers like Pacific Ocean beaches, rain forest valleys, glacier-capped peaks and a dazzling diversity of plants and animals. 95% of this park is still wilderness, making Olympic Wilderness one of the wildest places left in the lower 48 states.

via Lovethesepics

Olympic National Park in HD

Using the Flip Ultra HD I made a short movie about the beautiful scenery that the Olympic National Park in Washington State has to offer. Some of the sites are near Hurricane Ridge, Sol Duc Falls, Lake Crescent, etc.

Our “Beauty Marks” series highlights places that inspire us in nature.  In wildness is the future.

Nature Photo of the Week: Transantarctic Mountains | Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog of The Nature ConservancyWritten by Madeline Breen Published on December 9th, 2011 | Discuss This Article Photographer Edmund Stump writes, “As the Andes are to South America and the Himalayas are to Asia, so are the Transantarctic Mountains to Antarctica.” This glorious – and desolate – photograph of the Transantarctic Mountains caught our eye and was an easy pick for Nature Photo of the Week.

via Nature

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A range of opinions exist on how the Durban U.N. Climate Change talks have progressed.

WWF: Governments fail on ambition, courage at UN climate change talks:  Durban, South Africa — After two weeks of sparring and a day-long extension, governments once again failed today to provide the inspiration and ambition to tackle climate change and provide hope for hundreds of millions around…

• Durban: Saving the Planet or Saving Face? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Durban Climate Hero Abigail Borah: ‘I Am Speaking On Behalf Of The United States Of America Because My Negotiators Cannot’ (thinkprogress.org)

Slap Your Face Quotes from the Durban Climate Change …

http://sayitaintsoalready.com/

I haven’t put up any posts about the climate change conference that took place over the last two weeks in Durban, South Africa because because, well, because of a general sense of outrage overload and a feeling that nothing would get done …

China urges developed countries to take serious actions at Durban …

http://www.we-impact.com/

Developed countries should shoulder their historical responsibilities by seriously implementing the commitments and legal documents that they have already been agreed to, Xie Zhenhua, head of Chinese delegation to UN climate conference …

This is a great editorial from Taos News on keeping wilderness areas open and undisturbed by the hand of man.

Editorial: Keeping our wilderness areas wild and scenic – Taosnews.com

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 Editorial: Keeping our wilderness areas wild and scenicTaosnews.comNew Mexico was the first state to have a formally designated wilderness area when it preserved the then-750000-acre Gila Wilderness in 1924. Since then, the state has lagged behind We …

Being a big Gila Wilderness fan, the first Wilderness Area designated under the Wilderness Act, this sentiment rings true!  Keep our wild places wild!

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Here’s the latest buzz on wilderness bills, protection, and threats from around the U.S.

Wild places threatened under plan – Gloucester County Times – NJ.com

news.google.com

Wild places threatened under planGloucester County Times – NJ.comNot only would this bill “release” half of all the wilderness study areas to oil and gas leasing, it would roll back protections for more than 58 million acres of roadless national fore …

Burbank Canyon could become Wilderness area – Reno Gazette Journal

news.google.com

Burbank Canyon could become Wilderness areaReno Gazette Journal”Wilderness”–a term that generated huge public sentiment in Lyon and Mineral counties a couple of years ago–has arisen in neighboring Douglas County in the form of the Douglas County Co …

Help Wilderness in Montana | Scotchman Peaks Wilderness

www.scotchmanpeaks.org12/10/11

Our friends at the Montana Wilderness Association have asked for your help today. With a final push, the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act could pass into law this month! Please call Rep. Denny Rehberg’s office and ask him to …

Wilderness bill for scenic Nevada range introduced | The Associated …

washingtonexaminer.com11/7/11

With a rural county’s blessing, Nevada’s congressional delegation has introduced legislation to protect 26000 acres of a scenic mountain range north of Winnemucca as a federal wilderness area.

Lay of the Land: Wilderness Bills on the Move in Senate

sierraclub.typepad.com11/10/11

Cherokee National Forest (Image via Flickr: R. Neal) Great news for wilderness advocates—after a two-year lull in action, wilderness legislation is on the move in both chambers of Congress. Last month we reported on the …