Clarity

Ecological footprints are really not about living within our means by making the most of the resources that we have in our world, they're about making do with less, in the belief that we'll become spiritually advanced in the process --Rees asserts that a GDP of $7,000 to $8,000 per person is all that's needed to maximize human happiness. Surpluses above that should be taxed away, to prevent people from over-consuming.
Ecological footprints are really not about ecology, either.

The opinionator
At Wikipedia, one man engineers the debate on global warming, and shapes it to his views

Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, May 03, 2008

Next to Al Gore, William Connolley may be the world's most influential person in the global warming debate. He has a PhD in mathematics and worked as a climate modeller, but those accomplishments don't explain his influence -- PhDs are not uncommon and, in any case, he comes from the mid-level ranks in the British Antarctic Survey, the agency for which he worked until recently.

He was the Parish Councillor for the village of Coton in the U.K., his Web site tells us, and a school governor there, too, but neither of those accomplishments are a claim to fame in the wider world. Neither are his five failed attempts to attain public office as a local candidate for South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council as a representative for the Green Party.

But Connolley is a big shot on Wikipedia, which honours him with an extensive biography, an honour Wikipedia did not see fit to bestow on his boss at the British Antarctic Survey. Or on his boss's's boss, or on his boss's boss's boss, or on his boss's boss's boss's boss, none of whose opinions seemingly count for much, despite their impressive accomplishments. William Connolley's opinions, in contrast, count for a great deal at Wikipedia, even though some might not think them particularly worthy of note. "It is his view that there is a consensus in the scientific community about climate change topics such as global warming, and that the various reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) summarize this consensus," states his Wikipedia page, in the section called "Biography."

Connolley is not only a big shot on Wikipedia, he's a big shot at Wikipedia -- an a dministrator with unusual editorial clout. Using that clout, this 40-something scientist of minor relevance gets to tear down scientists of great accomplishment. Because Wikipedia has become the single biggest reference source in the world, and global warming is one of the most sought-after subjects, the ability to control information on Wikipedia by taking down authoritative scientists is no trifling matter.

One such scientist is Fred Singer, the First Director of the U.S. National Weather Satellite Service, the recipient of a White House commendation for his early design of space satellites; the recipient of a NASA commendation for research on particle clouds -- in short, a scientist with dazzling achievements who is everything Connolley is not. Under Connolley's

supervision, Singer is relentlessly smeared, and has been for years, as a kook who believes in Martians and a hack in the pay of the oil industry. When a smear is inadequate, or when a fair-minded Wikipedian tries to correct a smear, Connolley and his cohorts are there to widen the smear or remove the correction, often rebuking the Wikipedian in the process.

Wikipedia is full of rules that editors are supposed to follow, as well as a code of civility. Those rules and codes don't apply to Connolley, or to those he favours.

"Peiser's crap shouldn't be in here," Connolley wrote several weeks ago, in berating a Wikipedian colleague during an "edit war," as they're called. In such a war, rival sides change the content of a Wikipedia page from one competing version to another, often with bewildering speed. (Two people, landing on the same page seconds apart, might obtain entirely different information.) In the Peiser case, a Wikipedian stopped a prolonged war by freezing a continually changing page, to prevent more alterations until the dispute was settled. As occurs on such occasions, readers are alerted that Wikipedians are warring over the page, and that Wikipedia was not endorsing the version of the page that had been frozen. To Connolley's chagrin, however, the version that was frozen cast doubt on claims of a consensus on climate change. Although this was done within Wikipedia rules, Connolley intervened to revert the page and ensure Wikipedia readers saw only what he wanted them to see.

Peiser is Benny Peiser, a distinguished U.K. scientist who had convincingly refuted a study by Naomi Oreskes that claimed to have found no scientific papers at odds with the conventional wisdom on climate change. The Oreskes study -- cited by Al Gore in his film, An Inconvenient Truth-- is an article of faith to many global warming doomsayers and guarded from criticism by Connolley et al. Peiser and other critics of Oreskes's study, meanwhile, get demeaned.

Connolley and his cohorts don't just edit pages of scientists actively involved in the global warming debate. Scientists who work in unrelated fields, but who have findings that indirectly bolster a critique of climate change orthodoxy, will also get smeared. So will non-scientists and organizations that he disagrees with. Any reference, anywhere among Wikipedia's 2.5-million English-language pages, that casts doubt on the consequences of climate change will be bent to Connolley's bidding.

Connolley no longer works as a climate modeller -- he now works as a software engineer for a company called Cambridge Silicon Radio. And as an engineer of opinion at Wikipedia. - Lawrence Solomon is executive director of Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute, and author of The Deniers.

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A case of man vs. bear
Kevin Libin, National Post
Published: Friday, May 16, 2008
Todd Korol for National PostAlberta rancher Joe Lucas faces charges for killing a grizzly bear that was threatening his son.
You have to drive Highway 2 for a good half-hour north of the city nowadays before you're anywhere resembling the cattle country that was for generations Calgary's immediate neighbour. Ranching towns perched on the city's edge have transformed to populous bedroom communities. The urban sprawl doesn't drop to the rearview till you're almost at Carstairs, where roadside shops switch from selling pizzas to bull semen. Not far from the Bighorn Bowhunters and Archers Club is Joe Lucas' store, Westworld, where walls are adorned with the stuffed heads of rams, White-tailed deer and black bears; the cash counter is draped with animal pelts; and there are saddles, cowboy hats and purses made of cowhide. Here, you can buy Mr. Lucas' own brand of rodeo rope, designed by the four-time tie-down roping, three-time high-point national champ himself.

It wasn't far from here that Mr. Lucas learned to ride and ranch and hunt, and such common sense lessons as don't surprise a horse from behind or, when in grizzly country, bring a gun. "My dad taught me, 35 years ago, you have a gun and a flashlight in your tent at night. Not because he'd ever been attacked by a bear. But because that's what you do when you're in the mountains. You don't want to become the victim," Mr. Lucas says.

Such wisdom is no longer as common. Last week, the province of Alberta charged Mr. Lucas for shooting a grizzly bear he says was acting aggressively and charging his campsite. A double-lung shot at 16 yards, as the bear ran toward his 13-year-old son, according to Mr. Lucas. On June 5th he'll plead not guilty. "I read the charges. I can't understand how you could plead guilty to any of them," he says. "How could I even live with myself if I didn't kill that bear and he killed my son? Or anybody? If there was an animal-rights activist standing there I'd have had to shoot the bear to save him." He faces $500,000 in fines.

There were three people with Mr. Lucas that day last October, including his boy, Kyle. They all corroborate his version of events: It was a few days into a trip to Elbow-Sheep Wildland Provincial Park, a popular Kananaskis hunting area, scouting Bighorn they knew they'd probably never find. There is no hunting Sunday, so the group was taking it easy after breakfast. A few horses and a mule, put out to graze in a clearing, found themselves being harassed by a female grizzly. The mule stood the bear off. The men "put the run" on it, Mr. Lucas recalls, hollering and waving their arms. It headed off, about 300 yards from camp, but reappeared just a few dozen yards away, running for Kyle. "The bear had had several chances to be good," says Joe. "If he was a good bear, he wouldn't have come back. He wasn't. He was a badass." Joe fired. The wounded bear took off. Mr. Lucas got on his horse and rode three hours back to his truck and reported it to the parks department.

Rangers showed up the following afternoon and interviewed Mr. Lucas. That was the last he heard from them. After a necropsy and lab tests and seven months of analysis, provincial officials won't disclose why they've now charged Mr. Lucas with crimes related to "unlawfully destroying a bear" and failing to ensure his firearm was "unloaded and fully encased." There has been a moratorium on grizzly hunts for years, since conservation groups persuaded the sustainable development ministry their numbers are lower than thought. Dave Hanna, a conservation officer with Alberta's parks department, says he can't comment on the case while it's before the courts. "No one is going to take action against you for protecting your kids," he says, speaking hypothetically. But in some cases, "maybe that person had a higher standard of knowledge . . .did you have an alternative that could have gotten you out of this to start off with," he says. "I can't say there's a line on the ground that says you have to do ‘this' at ‘this' point in time, because these are extremely dynamic and variable situations."

Jim Pissot, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada, in Canmore, is glad the province is pursuing the case. There are indications, he thinks, that Mr. Lucas' group didn't take sufficient precautions to ensure a bear didn't show up in the first place. Once it did, he suggests, Mr. Lucas might have "acted hastily"; failing to take measures to avoid shooting, such as bear spray. "A person with a gun feels he has the world by the tail," Mr. Pissot says. "We are certainly aware of hundreds of hikers in the back country in K-country and elsewhere here in the Rockies, in grizzly areas, where bears are present and bears are not shot."

There are, of course, also cases in which hikers, hunters or bikers end up mauled or dead. There have been at least a half-dozen such attacks, two fatal (for the humans - in which case officials then hunt down the bear and kill it, too), in the past 24 months in Alberta. Contemplating a range of alternatives is easy when you're not out in the bush, facing a charging 400 lb grizzly, Mr. Lucas responds. Most anyone in his situation, he believes, would have reached for a loaded firearm, if they had one. "You've got the option of a loaded gun or a dead kid," he says. Four weeks after his own encounter, a hunter was found mauled to death not far from where Mr. Lucas grew up. The man, Don Peters, had a gun. An investigation found the hunter fired, but missed. "I'm not going to stand by and let somebody get mauled or killed with a gun in my hand. It's just not going to happen," Mr. Lucas insists.

Conservation groups have been pushing Alberta's government to declare grizzlies a "threatened" species. With supposedly just a few hundred, every life, Mr. Pissot says, is "critical." The public, adds Mr. Hanna, "is very concerned about the status of grizzly bears in the province." Joe Lucas sees it differently. Even today, faced with a belligerent grizzly, he says, he'd worry first about minimizing the possibility of people dying. It may be, he admits, becoming an endangered view.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=520786

If there was an animal-rights activist standing there I'd have had to shoot the bear to save him."

Sen. Kennedy flown to hospital after seizure
'Currently under evaluation'

Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Reuters
Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008

BOSTON -- U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a leading Democrat and patriarch of a prominent American political dynasty, suffered a seizure on Saturday but hours later was talking with family at his side in a Boston hospital.

Mr. Kennedy, 76, was rushed from the family vacation compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to Cape Cod Hospital at 9 a.m., before being airlifted to Boston.

"He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure," his office in Washington said in a statement.

A Kennedy aide said later that by Saturday afternoon the senator was joking with family members.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, after talking with Kennedy's wife, Vicki, told reporters in Reno, Nevada, that the senator "will be fine," a Reid aide said.

Mr. Reid said the senator had a seizure, but "woke up fighting," the aide added.

The Boston Globe reported Mr. Kennedy, youngest brother of assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy, suffered one seizure at his Cape Cod home and a second seizure aboard the helicopter transport flight to Boston.

Family members gathered at the hospital. His sons Edward Kennedy Jr. and Patrick and daughter Kara as well as his nephew Joe Kennedy and niece Caroline Kennedy came to the hospital, according a Reuters photographer at the scene.

Mr. Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the current U.S. Senate, is a leading liberal voice in the United States and has actively campaigned for Barack Obama in his bid to become the Democratic nominee in the November presidential election.

"As I've said many times before, Ted Kennedy is a giant in American political history. He's done more for the health care of others than just about anybody in history," Mr. Obama told reporters during a visit to a hospital in Eugene, Oregon.

"We are going to be rooting for him, and I, I insist on being optimistic about how it's going to turn out."

Campaigning in Kentucky, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, offered her wishes for the senator's quick recovery.

Mr. Kennedy has been a vocal critic of Republican President George W. Bush, particularly on his Iraq war, tax cuts for the wealthy and conservative nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court who he fears will push the high court to the right.

But he also worked closely with Republicans on legislation including Republican presidential candidate John McCain on the controversial immigration issue.

"He is a legendary lawmaker," Mr. McCain said in a statement. "When we have worked together, he has been a skillful, fair and generous partner. I consider it a great privilege to call him my friend."

The white-haired senator has had other brushes with ill health. He had preventive surgery at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital in October to unclog a partially blocked carotid artery in his neck.

The blockage was discovered during a routine check of Mr. Kennedy's back and spine, doctors said. A blocked carotid artery can lead to a stroke and death, they said at the time.

Mr. Kennedy has suffered from back problems since a plane crash in 1964 in which the pilot and one of Mr. Kennedy's aides were killed and the senator was pulled from the wreckage with a punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.

Mr. Kennedy came to the Senate in November 1962 to fill a seat earlier held by his older brother, then President John Kennedy. He currently serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

He ran for president in 1980, but his White House ambitions had never recovered from Chappaquiddick, the July 1969 accident when his car plunged off a bridge on a Massachusetts island and a young woman riding with him, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Kennedy lost the 1980 party nomination to Jimmy Carter who failed in his bid for a second White House term.

Mr. Kennedy helped win an increase in the national minimum wage this year and worked with Republicans to produce broad immigration reform, which failed in the Senate after stiff opposition from conservative Republicans.

His oldest brother, Joseph Jr, died as a Second World War flier when his bomber exploded over the English Channel. John became America's first and so far only Roman Catholic president in 1960 and was assassinated in 1963. Robert was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=523480

"We are certainly aware of hundreds of hikers in the back country in K-country and elsewhere here in the Rockies, in grizzly areas, where bears are present and bears are not shot."

"As I've said many times before, Ted Kennedy is a giant