Mourning a Mountain Lion

 

Beloved Mountain Lion Dies After Collision A well-known California mountain lion named P-22 was euthanized last weekend after being found with severe injuries from a car strike.   Likely born in the Santa Monica Mountains, P-22 first appeared in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park in 2012. Fitted with a radio collar to track his movements, he quickly rose to local and national fame. Having already crossed two perilous freeways to get to the urban park, he roamed the area alone for a decade rather than risking crossing again to find a mate.   The 12-year-old cat shouldn’t have had to suffer head and organ trauma — and he shouldn’t have been boxed in by traffic.   The Center for Biological Diversity recently helped pass the historic Safe Roads and Wildlife Protection Act, which will improve wildlife connectivity and make California safer for mountain lions and people alike.   Help us keep up the fight to save wildlife and habitat with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund. Do it today and your donation will be doubled.

Tell Tennessee Valley Authority: Pass on Dirty Gas Gas prices are spiking, and so are electricity bills. That could saddle millions of people with utility debt and risk shutoffs this winter. But rather than investing in cheaper and safer rooftop-solar energy, utilities like the Tennessee Valley Authority keep pumping money into new fossil fuel projects.   This massive utility is proposing to replace its Cumberland coal power plant with a new fossil gas plant and pipeline. As the largest public power provider in the United States, TVA should be leading the desperately needed transition to a cleaner renewable energy future — not standing in its way. Urge the utility’s president and CEO to stop defying climate science and follow President Biden’s mandate for 100% clean energy.

New Protection for Three Plants After years of Center legal work, on Friday Tiehm’s buckwheat won final protection as an endangered species. This rare Nevada wildflower is threatened by a lithium mine for which the federal government just launched an approval process — so protection is more crucial than ever. Tiehm’s lives on just 10 acres of Nevada public land, and the proposed mine would destroy nearly all its habitat.   On the very same day, following work by the Center and allies, a high-elevation tree called whitebark pine won protection as threatened. A keystone food source for grizzlies and other animals, it’s imperiled by disease and climate change.   Then, this Wednesday, the endangered Florida bristle fern got 4,195 acres of protected critical habitat. Acutely threatened by development-driven habitat loss and by sea-level rise, the dainty fern has no roots and grows in moist, shady areas of exposed limestone in Miami-Dade and Sumter counties. Only six known populations remain.

Biodiversity Convention Agrees to 30x30 Plan  Center staff joined advocates and officials from around the world this month at the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal. The summit, known as COP15, ended in an agreement to protect 30% of land and freshwater and marine habitat by 2030. It included a policy-making framework centering the role of Indigenous peoples in meeting that goal.    It’s not a moment too soon: The planet faces an extinction crisis like we’ve never seen, risking 28% of species worldwide, from sunflower leafcutter bees to Asian elephants.    “A global agreement to protect a third of the planet by 2030 is monumental,” said the Center’s Tanya Sanerib. “Now we have to roll up our sleeves and do it.”

Victory Against Junk Wall on the Border After weeks of protests, two Center lawsuits, and thousands of letters from our supporters urging the federal government to step in, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has stopped building his illegal shipping-container wall on the Arizona-Mexico border.   Ducey started the wall this summer — on public lands — for “national security.” His stunt destroyed habitat and blocked migratory paths for endangered jaguars and ocelots. Only a third of the planned 10-mile wall was built, but what’s there has got to go. On Thursday, Ducey agreed to remove it — we’ll keep pressure on to make sure he does.   Thank you to all who took action with us. You made a difference.

Right Whales Condemned to Extinction With no public discussion or accountability, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Appropriations Committee Chair Patrick Leahy inserted an unprecedented provision into the massive bill to fund the federal government, which passed the Senate Thursday morning. This policy would let the U.S. lobster industry delay — for six years — actions that are urgently needed to save critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from fatal fishing-gear entanglement.    Without more simple actions like limiting vertical fishing lines and seasonal zone restrictions, these majestic creatures will almost certainly disappear. There are only 340 of them left on the planet.    “Extinction is a political choice, and Schumer just made it clear that he’s willing to pander to special interests over protecting these mighty giants,” said the Center's Stephanie Kurose.

Help Stop This Dangerous Climate Bomb Advocates in Utah and Colorado are working to stop new oil trains that could soon send millions of barrels of climate-destroying crude every month from Utah's Uinta Basin through Colorado to Gulf Coast refineries. That would mean up to 30 loaded oil trains a week, each over a mile and a half long, creating new wildfire hazards and threatening spills.   The Biden administration can stop this misguided plan by denying a right-of-way through the Ashley National Forest. And it must.   “It’s worthwhile to continue to put pressure on the Biden administration,” said Center campaigner Deeda Seed. “This project is a poster child for the harm from climate change.”   Colorado Gov. Jared Polis can play an important role in stopping this climate bomb. Tell him to call on President Biden and USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack to deny the right-of-way permit.

Revelator: Good News for Bears, Birds and More Need some cheer? You’re in luck.   This month is the Good News Edition of The Revelator’s Links From the Brink column. It shares several conservation success stories — wins for black and grizzly bears, songbirds, orcas and more — and shines a light on new tools to fight pollution.   If you haven’t subscribed yet, sign up for the free e-newsletter bringing you each week’s best environmental articles and essays.

Awards Go to Environmental Heroes       The Center has just announced the winners of our 2022 Rose Braz and E.O. Wilson awards.   The Rose Braz Award for Bold Activism — given in memory of the Center’s beloved founding climate campaign director — goes to Ukrainian climate scientist Svitlana Romanko and, posthumously, to water protector Joye Braun. Romanko founded Razom We Stand after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and is a powerful voice calling on world leaders to break away from their fossil fuel dependence on Russia. Braun, who died in November at 53, cofounded the Oceti Sakowin camp at Standing Rock, sparking momentum to stop the Dakota Access pipeline, and helped lead in the People vs. Fossil Fuels movement.   The E.O Wilson Award, named for the renowned scientist, goes to iconic researcher Jim Williams, a champion of U.S. Southeast endangered species conservation. As a biologist in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Williams wrote many of the earliest Endangered Species Act listing decisions for freshwater mussels and fishes — including snail darters, declared recovered earlier this year. Now retired, Williams continues his advocacy.

That’s Wild: Celebrating the Snake Clitoris Seduction and stimulation are part of sex life for a lot of animals. And with a recent discovery of clitorises in snakes, scientists may add some new ones to the list.   Megan Folwell, lead researcher in a recent study on snake sex, shocked the science world with what should have been unsurprising news. She says the clitoris wasn’t hard to find — researchers just weren’t looking for it, focusing more on snake penises.    Folwell first located a clitoris on a highly venomous common death adder, who she noticed having a heart-shaped tissue structure near the scent glands. Folwell’s team went on to confirm this anatomy in nine other snake species.   The finding sheds new light on mating behaviors that could be considered foreplay, where a male snake wraps around his partner’s tail and pulses near the clitoris.

Follow Us Center for Biological Diversity | Saving Life on Earth     Donate now to support the Center's work.   Photo credits: P-22 by Jeff Sikich/NPS; rooftop solar installation by EE Image Database/Flickr; Tiehm's buckwheat by Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity; Asian elephant by John Boyle/Flickr; junk wall by Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity; North Atlantic right whale by Allison Henry/NOAA; derailed oil train courtesy EPA; black bear by Keegan Burke/USFWS; Svitlana Romanko by Piranha Photography, Joye Braun by Nedahness Greene/Indigenous Environmental Network and Jim Williams by C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr.; common death adder by Petr Hamerník/Wikimedia. Center for Biological Diversity P.O. Box 710 Tucson, AZ 85702 United States