Beam Me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 08/19/2008 7:22:15 PM PDT by jazusamo
WASHINGTON — Compared to the polar bear, the American pika is downright tiny. Weighing only 4 ounces to 6 ounces, this small, rabbitlike mammal with thick brown hair that lives on boulder-covered slopes near alpine meadows in Western mountain ranges, could represent the latest effort to use the Endangered Species Act to combat global warming.
Environmentalists filed a lawsuit today in U.S. district court in Sacramento, Calif., to force the Bush administration to decide whether to list the pika for protection under the act. The lawsuit claims the animal is threatened by rising temperatures and says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has dragged its feet for months on whether to list it.
In May, the polar bear was protected as a threatened species under the act. But Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made clear at the time that the Endangered Species Act was not intended to regulate global climate change.
Kempthorne said it would be “inappropriate” to use the Endangered Species Act to control greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants and other sources. He said the polar bear listing would be accompanied by “administrative guidance” and an administrative rule to limit any unintended harm to the U.S. economy. Environmentalists dispute the White House approach.
“We disagree with the administration that the Endangered Species Act isn’t a perfectly appropriate act to address global warming,” said Greg Loarie of Earthjustice, an environmental legal firm representing the Center for Biological Diversity in the lawsuit.
Loarie said the pika (PIE-kah), which is intolerant of high temperatures, is an appropriate animal to test their contention.
“The pika is very much the polar bear of the Lower 48,” he said.
The Fish and Wildlife Service had no comment on the lawsuit.
In addition to the polar bear, Loarie said, a type of coral and the Antarctic penguin are the only other species linked to global warming and the Endangered Species Act.
The pika’s range includes the western U.S. and Canada in the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to British Columbia, the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada in California through the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington.
More than a third of the documented pika populations in Nevada and Oregon have disappeared, and elsewhere they are moving upslope to avoid rising temperatures, said Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. They can die when exposed to temperatures of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for a few hours, Wolf said.
“The pika is the American West’s canary in the coal mine,” Wolf said. “As temperatures rise, pika populations at lower elevations are being driven to extinction, pushing pikas further upslope until they have nowhere else
Ping!
Here we go again — another lever for the liberal socialists to gain more control over OUR LANDS.
...wow there are so many things that can be said about this....
Yes, just recently Secretary of Interior Kempthorne went along with the enviros to list the polar bear.
The National Weather Service has posted a frost warning tonight for the Middle Tanana Valley, which includes Fairbanks, North Pole and the surrounding areas. The weather advisory is in effect from midnight to 7 a.m. Wednesday., with temperatures expected to be coolest in the low-lying areas. Temperatures from the mid-20s to lower 30s are projected.
The evirowhackos would have tried to save the dinosauers.
WASHINGTON, August 12th (AFP) - The administration of US President George W. Bush has proposed revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) so that the law can not be used to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases.
Then there are two unquestionable facts: 1) It's cute, and 2) It's thriving.
Annoying little critters.
If there was only one,that’s right ,just one cockroack left on this earth I’d step on it.
Save the USA.Step on a Cockroach.
Good reminder, algore should be asked what happened to summer.
Maybe the real intent is to impair or prevent access to oil-shale.
“More than a third of the documented pika populations in Nevada and Oregon have disappeared,”....
moved to other areas to avoid the onslaught of liberals from California.
Such revisions can’t stop others from using other excuses to accomplish the same thing under the current act.
The Bush Administration did another stupid one with this.
Encyclopedia Brittanica states that pika populations “fluctuate widely.” And they are cute.
Hey, all I did was post some relevant and timely news that directly contradicts your opinion.
Ochotona princeps – Lower Risk Least Concern
Summary Classification Schemes Images & External Links Bibliography Full Account Taxonomy Kingdom: ANIMALIA Phylum: CHORDATA Class: MAMMALIA Order: LAGOMORPHA Family: OCHOTONIDAE Scientific Name: Ochotona princeps Species Authority: (Richardson, 1828) Infra-specific Taxa Assessed: See Ochotona princeps ssp. nigrescens See Ochotona princeps ssp. lasalensis See Ochotona princeps ssp. sheltoni See Ochotona princeps ssp. tutelata See Ochotona princeps ssp. nevadensis See Ochotona princeps ssp. goldmani See Ochotona princeps ssp. obscura
Common Name/s: English — AMERICAN PIKA
Assessment Information Red List Category & Criteria: LR/lc ver 2.3 (1994) Year Assessed: 1996 Annotations: Needs updating Assessor/s: Lagomorph Specialist Group
Justification: Widespread species that does not appear to be in decline. Assessed as Least Concern.
Geographic Range Countries: Native: Canada; United States
Habitat and Ecology System: Terrestrial
Bibliography Bibliography: Lagomorph Specialist Group. For more information, see the Specialist Group website Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds). 1993. Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. Second edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London. Citation: Lagomorph Specialist Group 1996. Ochotona princeps. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. . Downloaded on 19 August 2008. Disclaimer: To make use of this information, please check the Copyright and Data Disclaimer. Feedback: If you see any errors or have any questions or suggestions on what is shown on this page, please fill in the feedback form so that we can correct or extend the information provided. © International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Contact Information Help Save Species
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