Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Scientists form advocacy group "Wisconsin's Green Fire"

In the face of the Walker administration's coordinated and ideological attack on sound science and conservation in Wisconsin - - long a theme on this blog - - there's a hopeful new development I am happy to share

Dozens of Wisconsin experts have banded together in a non-profit entity together to speak up for science and respect for the land- - 
Canoeing 
- - to provide solid, non-partisan information and to offer assistance to groups and local governments with the legacy of the great Wisconsinite conservationist Aldo Leopold as the guiding light:
Under Governor Walker’s administration, budgets have been slashed for Wisconsin State Parks and public lands management, scientific research, the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, and the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board. 
Scientific information on climate change has been scrubbed from Department of Natural Resources communications and restrictions on Department of Natural Resources staff have limited access to science at public hearings...responsible, science-based, long-term management practices are no longer welcome at the table.
In response to these threats, a group of retired and active Wisconsin scientists with experience from a wide range of institutions—including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the University of Wisconsin, federal natural resource agencies, nonprofit environmental groups, research institutions, and the private sector—have established Wisconsin’s Green Fire...
The group takes its name from one of Aldo Leopold’s essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain”... 
More information about Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices for Conservation, a website, and opportunities to join and/or contribute will be available in coming months. For information now, you can contact terryldaulton@gmail.com.

1 comment:

Raven said...

Worth mining for quotes: R.A. Lafferty's historical fantasy The Flame is Green (1971) set in 1848 Europe as a "Green Revolution" opposes the Red.

"Let us say that we have a green thing growing forever. Everything that is done is done by it. And on it we also have the red parasite crunching forever; and everything that is undone is undone by that. This has gone on forever, though it is hard to trace through garbled history. And it must still go on forever. For all your own life and for the life of all your children, you will carry on the green battle."

"Do not be deceived by the way men of bad faith misuse words and names.... Things are set up as contraries that are not even in the same category. Listen to me: the opposite of radical is superficial, the opposite of liberal is stingy; the opposite of conservative is destructive. Thus I will describe myself as a radical conservative liberal; but certain of the tainted red fish will swear that there can be no such fish as that. Beware of those who use words to mean their opposites. At the same time have pity on them, for usually this trick is their only stock in trade."