Condors, Already F*cked, Get Fracked

[Judi Lynn]

April 6, 2015

Condors, Already F*cked, Get Fracked

Expanding fracking in a California condor sanctuary could kill an endangered species we’ve worked hard–and spent millions–to save.

BY Hannah Guzik

Nancy Mauthe remembers walking along the Sespe Wilderness in the early 1980s and wondering if she would ever see a California condor there again.

In 1982, there were only 23 wild condors left in the world. The majestic species—with the largest wingspan of any North American bird—was nearly extinct. Lead and DDT poisoning, habitat destruction and poaching had crippled the population.

The condors have made a slow comeback, aided by more than $60 million in federal and private funds. Today, there are 230 condors living in the wild, but the species still teeters on the edge of survival.

Now, a new report suggests that the condors may face another enemy.

A draft environmental impact report by California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) suggests that oil and gas production could have significant and unavoidable impacts for endangered species, potentially devastating entire populations.

More:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/17766/condors-get-fracked

[Gregorian]

1. When driving your kids to soccer practice is more important than a habitable planet...

[MisterP]

2. heck, 40% of our oil consumption is just commuting: point A to point B, everyday, forever

together with everyone else going C-D and E-F, because we're afraid Blacks and gays will ride the commuter train

[Gregorian]

3. Want to go on a bike ride? Get in your car. Want to walk your dog: get in your car.

I'm literally losing friends over this. I bought a home near my bike riding so I could ride out the door, and enjoy biking. Everyone else gets in their car, and drives at least 15 to 25 miles each way, EACH DAY, to ride their bikes. And I"m furious. What's worse is that they're now trying to turn this into a tourist destination for biking, and the closest town is nearly 100 miles away. And they don't get why when I see them on the trails now why I'm not all smiles. I'm furious. Crowds of bikers all driving in individual cars from all over the country. I'm a real killjoy aren't I? It's dragging me down to see such stupidity and selfishness. I can't escape the car centric madness.

And then there's the preschool down the road. 4 miles down a road to nowhere, and people must be driving at least 10 miles one way in order to get their kids shuttled there. And they come pick them up for lunch, and then drive them back, and then come get them at the end of the day. It's utter madness.

It really sucks being in such a small minority that one even has to question their own sanity with respect to something this serious. When there are symptoms, like rising water, or massive melting of methane in the permafrost, it will be so much too late.

My dad told me fifty years ago that people only change in a crisis. Now I see why it was called an "inconvenient" truth. I'm sick of lazy and unobservant people. Even other engineers I graduated with are lukewarm about climate change. It's infuriating. So all I can do is try to maintain my own health, and just try to not let it bother me. Good luck with that.

[MisterP]

4. but a LOT of people have noted that everyone's just driving the kids to school

even when they have a bus, and not just in the exurbs (I mean, what the 40s and 70s considered sprawl now seems *adorable*): families go even an hour three times a week to soccer practice; the elementary and secondary schools are utterly clogged every morning and every afternoon

but sometime in the 80s a lot of people started noticing that there were fewer block parties, that people just stopped letting the kids come over--either as everyone "aged out" or as Reagan and Falwell changed how people got their money (some more, most less) or ran their lives (if you're not preaching at them, don't interact with the preterite): there was a friendliness still extant under the Edward Scissorhands/Monsters on Maple Street even in the 70s that's gone by now