Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Readers will remember Smoky Joe Barton, the Texas Congressman who apologized to the CEO of British Petroleum for the Federal penalties imposed after the Gulf Oil spill.
Mr Barton was well known for public displays of piety, as above.

Mr Barton left the House in disgrace a few years ago after a girlfriend published his graphic genital selfies.

Compressed Air Energy Storage. Engineers have some new ideas to make it work.

Enviro News:

The International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF) has recruited women to protect the world’s natural heritage along Africa’s Zambezi River. The Akashinga, or “Brave Ones,” is a privately-funded, highly-trained, vegan group of local women from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds assigned to protect the Lower Zambezi Ecosystem along the Zambian and Zimbabwean border. The goal is to recruit 2,000 women in an effort to protect 30 million acres of African wild lands by 2030.

Founded in early 2017 by former Australian Special Operations soldier Damien Mander as part of his approach to end poaching in Africa, the Akashinga is the first fully armed, all-women, anti-poaching team in Africa. (The Black Mambas of South Africa are the first female anti-poaching team; they are unarmed.)

“Many current western solutions to conserve wilderness areas continue to struggle across the African continent, hampered by ongoing corruption, nepotism and a lack of partnership with local communities,” Mander told Maria Chiorando of Plant Based News. “We saw that an alternative and highly innovative approach was needed, a response that worked with, rather than against, the local population for the long-term benefit of both their own communities and nature.”

The Lower Zambezi Ecosystem is just one of many areas in Africa with large tracts of land dedicated to trophy hunting outside wildlife preserves. No fences exist to keep animals in the protected areas from wandering into the unprotected areas. In the past, trophy hunters have paid into local economies through their expensive and high profile hunting activities. The IAPF presents the Akashinga as an alternative for conserving wildlife – a technique of big game management directly juxtaposed to trophy hunting.

Video from New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

The suffering of animals due to climate change is, and will be, immense.
Of course, for climate deniers, that calls for high fives all around.

Evening Standard UK:

Around 480 million animals are feared to have died in the bushfires sweeping Australia, including nearly a third of the koalas in New South Wales‘s main habitat.

Ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate around 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been killed, directly or indirectly, by the devastating blazes since they began in September, The Times reported.

This includes almost 8,000 koalas, which are believed to have burnt to death on the state’s mid-north coast.

The region, which lies around 240 miles north of Sydney, is home to the largest number of Australia’s koalas, with a population of up to 28,000.

Federal environment minister Sussan Ley told ABC “up to 30 per cent of the population in that region” may have been killed, because around 30 per cent of their habitat has been destroyed.

“We’ll know more when the fires have calmed down and a proper assessment can be made,” she added.

More than 100 fires continue to rage across the country, having so far consumed more than five million hectares of land.